Poet Bob Orr is thrilled to be back on home turf as Waikato University writer-in-residence.
"I was raised on a farm at Hoe-o-Tainui about 20km north of Morrinsville but spent almost all my adult life in Auckland," says Orr who when he retired as a Ports of Auckland pilot boat master last year moved to the Firth of Thames.
The winner of last year's biennial Lauris Edmond Memorial Award for his contribution to poetry, Orr has been reaching into memory while in Hamilton to craft poems based on his childhood.
"It's been a wonderful year reconnecting with my past, writing and contributing to the cultural life of the university. I'm pretty sure what I'm writing now will lead to a collection.
This is the first year in my life when I've been able to devote myself to poetry instead of squeezing it in round the margins."