A 9m by 15m installation in the lobby of New Zealand’s tallest office building, the wall features over 70 literary and other quotations which capture the spirit of New Zealand. Story Inc developed the concept, selected the quotations, designed the wall and supervised installation.

THE STORY INC PRIZE FOR POETRY

In 2002 Story Inc endowed a poetry prize to be awarded each year to the best poetry folio produced in the Institute of Modern Letters’ poetry workshops at Victoria University. Part of the endowment for the prize comes from combining the individual royalties that might have been paid to copyright holders of the quotations used in “Wall of Words” installation, who generously agreed to waive their fees in favour of a collective donation to an appropriate charity.

This year’s winner is Hera Bradburn

Jaime

His cardigan is still hanging by the door where he left it

hooked like a fish. Its neck is an open mouth

gasping.

You lay your face against the surface of the kitchen table

the polished grain, the dark veins of trees.

It too was once growing.

Things which can be held

There are hands born

to shadow walls with the bright motions of birds.

There are birds born

to unpick skies with small hooked beaks.

In the cold of the kitchen, braiding wooden stems in patient wreaths.

We trim the stems diagonally, suspend life briefly.

Your breath catches on nothing, these fine folds of flesh

curl our throats with the force of what’s spoken.

There are things that can be held in this life,

and maybe you will be the one to hold them.

Marguerite

Those friends of her body, those rusting cells

that strike together like Christmas bells

are ringing themselves out.

The sky can no longer focus itself.

The curtains are as dark as the trees.

The trees are as dark as the curtains.

Her linen is frightening

tight and winding.

Eventually

everything folds.