Catullus for Children

By Anna Jackson

Caught between the two cities of Hamilton and Wellington, poet Anna Jackson returns to her favourite themes of domestic life, her children and the Russian poet she loves in Catullus for Children. In the first part of Catullus for Children, Anna Jackson adapts some of Catullus's famous verse to the playground, sharply noting the obsessions and the preoccupations of her children in poems with titles like 'War' and 'Party'. 'The Treehouse' is a further selection of poems on family life: affectionate, amused and wistful. In 'The Happiness of Poets', the Russians talk and sing and play games with words, and finally in 'Stow Stay', the family moves south, packs up and gets ready for a new life, 'every step an arrival'. The poems in Catullus are full of tenderness and delight in the child's world, but they also suggest fear and anxiety at its fragility and a knowledge that children soon grow up and take on the burdens of adulthood.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Auckland University Press
• Release date: Oct 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781869406110

Anna Jackson

Carl and Anna Jackson were raised in Christian homes with an emphasis on the holiness of God and the importance of living lives above reproach. They came from humble beginnings, Carl from Oklahoma, and Anna from Minnesota. Their upbringings were centered upon Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of their families. They were raised with strict adherence to the Word of God with great respect for what the Lord desired in all manner of living. A Christian college in Kansas is where they met, and they have been married for 60 years at the time of this writing. Carl and Anna Jackson have been in the pastoral ministry for most of their adult lives and have ministered in several states in the Midwest and Southwest, namely, Wisconsin, Arizona, Kansas and Oklahoma. Carl has produced his own broadcasts for several radio stations in the Tucson and the Phoenix areas, including KHEP AM-FM, KFLR FM in Phoenix, and KFLT, FAMILY LIFE RADIO, headquartered in Tucson and reaching across a number of other state lines. Carl and Anna have worked for several Christian ministries in Colorado and Oklahoma, including TEEN CHALLENGE OF ARZONA, INC., Tucson, Arizona. Their burden is to see that children, young people and adults realize their full potential as God intended for them to live. They desire to encourage and train members of the body of Christ to pray and intercede through God’s power.