Aotearoa Poet Laureate (2017-19) Selina Tusitala Marsh recently visited Australia for the 2018 Sydney Writers Festival. Here she is discussing the future of the Commonwealth (it’s kinda like the EU but with more colonial baggage) and her writing. Continue reading
Australia was recently visited by New Zealand’s new Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern. At the end of her visit some wag commented that ‘Australia has a smart, progressive Prime Minister with a firm vision of the future; unfortunately, she’s returning to New Zealand later this week.’
Which leads me to the February edition of Poetry Magazine featuring new New Zealand poetry. Continue reading
the twilight is as green as greenstone
and there’s a cold front coming. Continue reading
Rather than the long road, the coast road,
the narrow goat road that follows
the bowls and bends of this sundered shore,
sea on your left or now on your right,
we turned inland, for we had far to go.
June 2016
(with apologies to Prufrock)
Rhombosolea Plebeia – The Sand Flounder
Let us go there, you and I
Where the salt marshes are spread out ‘neath the sepia sky
Like a poem anaesthetised on a page. Continue reading
May 2016
New Zealand is a small, bifurcated country just to the right and a little down from Australia. It has over 15,000 kilometres of pristine coast, hundreds of inland lakes and rivers, spectacular waterfalls and an average annual rainfall of between 600 and 1600 mm. In other words, there are plenty of ways to get wet in New Zealand; the least satisfactory of all these is the ensuite shower… Continue reading
