15/03/2024
It is with great sadness that we share the news of John Allison's passing yesterday morning.
Please read the wonderful tribute to John's life as a poet and a supporter of writers and artists below from fellow NZSA member James Norcliffe.
John was a mentor to many. A lover of words. A generous kind man. He will be greatly missed.
Vale John Allison
- text by James Norcliffe -
John and I go back a long way. I first met him when he gave a talk at the Rudolf Steiner School which had recently moved to its site in Beckenham. John spoke about the Steinererian philosophy and we had a practical workshop on Steiner type art. I had misgivings about aspects of the Steiner way and John and I had a friendly joust. Despite these misgivings we had enrolled our son, Tom, at the school. Tom was then 5, he’s now not far short of fifty.
A little later, I became aware of John the poet. Jeff Harpeng and Karen McNab had established a regular poetry reading in the Folk Music Society room in the old Primary Teachers Training College in the Peterborough Centre. These readings later developed into the Canterbury Poets’ Collective (CPC); Karen went on to found The Airing Cupboard.
A number of local poets became habitues of the poetry readings, notably including David Howard, John O’Connor, Graham Lindsay, Brigid Kelly, and me, along with Jeff and Karen. John Allison was also there from the outset and I got to know him well. We developed a friendly rivalry to see who could get published in the most prestigious overseas journals. On balance, I think John won.
At that time the CPC was a loose collective with an ad hoc organisation. John O’Connor established a little more order and instituted a publishing arm Sudden Valley Press with David Gregory. SVP at this time published two of John’s collections: Both Roads Taken (1997) and Stone Moon Dark Water (1999).
Incidentally, it was John O’Connor who suggested our defining name – Canterbury Poets' Collective. The word ‘collective’ appealed to John O’Connor’s working class roots and lefty sympathies.
Jeff and Karen departed from New Zealand to return to Jeff’s homeland, Australia, and settled in Brisbane, but the CPC went from strength to strength regularly moving from home to home: the Arts Centre, Hagley College (briefly), the WEA, the Madras Cafe Bookshop, Ara. The management committee, rather more formal now, structured the readings much as we know them today, with and open mic followed by guest readers, always including at least one from out of town.
John Allison was involved in this committee until in 2001 when he shifted to Melbourne – to be precise, the Dandenong Hills, to be with Bettye, his new partner. On his departure, David Howard and I brought out a chapbook ‘Passport Stamps, a Festschrift For John Allison’.
It was a measure of the respect and admiration for John’s work and his contribution to the poetry scene here, that twenty or so poets, some from beyond Christchurch, sent us poems.
With Bettye’s untimely death, John felt the need to return to Christchurch and his family and circle of friends here. Almost immediately, he threw himself into the CPC, joining the management team, bringing all his enthusiasm and great experience to the jobs at hand. It was John who saw the need for a media presence and instituted this Facebook community.
Of course, what we’ll remember is not John’s nuts and bolts committee work, but his passion for poetry. This passion, of course goes well beyond his own meticulously crafted, beautifully perfected work. It goes beyond his resonant public readings. What we’ll remember is his support for his fellow poets and their work.
John was a generous man. So many poets, just embarking on their poetry journey, have spoken of his kind words of encouragement, words that gave them confidence and a sense of inclusion.
Vale John, good friend, marvellous poet, generous man.
John Allison passed away peacefully surrounded by family in the early hours Thursday morning (14 March).
