Helen Lehndorf
Helen Lehndorf studied English at Massey University and Creative Writing at Whitireia Polytechnic, and has been writing, publishing and performing her poetry for 20 years. Her poems, short stories and personal essays have appeared in journals and anthologies and have been broadcast on Radio New Zealand National. She lives in the Manawatu where she works at the Palmerston North City Library.
Lehndorf comments: ‘In this poem I explore the tensions between accepting oneself and yet wanting to improve, or somehow, to start all over again with a clean slate. Whilst fantasising about that 'clean slate', I also accept that the quality of “wabi-sabi” is not possible without the wear and tear of life. In my writing I am always teasing out the ambivalences, contradictions and small hypocrisies which I believe to be very human. I'm more interested in muddy waters than clear ones.’
