NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Entertainment

<i>Contemporary New Zealand poets in performance</i> by Jack Ross and Jan Kemp (Eds.)

By Graham Brazier
11 Aug, 2007 05:00 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Contemporary New Zealand Poets In Performance edited by Jack Ross and Jan Kemp. Photo / Martin Sykes

Contemporary New Zealand Poets In Performance edited by Jack Ross and Jan Kemp. Photo / Martin Sykes

KEY POINTS:

Some five years ago, a musical associate and I mused that by the year 2015, everyone in New Zealand would have either played in, been related to, or held an organisational part in the musical landscape of Antipodean rock 'n' roll.

In the late 19th century, coinciding with
the birth of jazz, everyone wanted to be involved with poetry. If Edward Lear was absurd (in the finest fashion, The Owl and the Pussycat), Shakespeare's every word was hung on to like a French fashion garment worn by the dandy Baudelaire - who, in his lifetime was famed only for translating Poe from English into French.

Now I see the acorn falls not far from the tree. The spoken word is alive, thriving, surviving, thanks to Kerouac and Sylvia Plath, Dylan Thomas on a drunken promise, Burroughs, Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti and the grandfather of rap, in my humble opinion, Gil Scott Heron who ruled, "The revolution will not be televised!"

Of course, these aforementioned are not from "the country shaped like a butterfly's wing", as Auckland poet Bob Orr so beautifully describes New Zealand in his cornucopia of our wondrous local talent.

Contemporary New Zealand Poets in Performance is a masterpiece. The book is a companion volume to Classic New Zealand Poets in Performance, also edited by Ross and Kemp, and included twin CDs from the Waiata Recordings Archives circa 1974.

I had the privilege of playing with Rick Bryant at a bohemian farewell to the late Alan Brunton. He, Murray Edmond and Michele Leggott had edited Big Smoke: New Zealand Poems 1960-75, and all three appear once more in this fine tome which, to me, shows on an international stage of written page. It stands with pride and diversity of culture, individuality and class unsurpassed.

And so I give a fond farewell to Sally Rodwell, Alan's ex and fellow founder of Red Mole; the end of a beautiful era. I feel Sally, who died last year, could not live without her literary soulmate: a minute's silence, please (I am sincere in this statement).

I was truly humbled when asked to review Contemporary NZ Poets in Performance and I have to thank my mother for giving me the foresight to discern gold from rubbish. Along with the 27 wordsmiths, the book, like its predecessor, also includes two CDs of some magical readings - hold your breath at the rare reading by Janet Frame - plus selected bibliographies.

From Bill Manhire, who has been our patron saint of creative writing, to Apirana Taylor's marae-trodden wisdom and beauty, not a jandal or footprint has been put wrong in this literary terra firma.

Bibliographies for each poet have been included, along with an appendix of various readings to laugh, cry, whisper and wonder at. As Kemp and Ross state, the recordings serve to remind us as a nation we are like the Irish; not a silent people, but voiced in the landscape of our sometimes harsh and beatific environment.

From my point of view as a school leaver at age 15, I cannot truly expand on the academic attributes of these works but must view them from a heart spent living above a bookshop in my formative years and travelling the worlds beer-soaked bars, where much modern poetry has its traditions and soul.

I will, in my twilight years, press the leaves of the puka puka tree (book) until dried to a parchment and write what I hope may be a slight but heartfelt tribute to what appears in this collection. My computer and I remain at war but my weapon, my pen, may yet prove to be as valid as Bill Gate's fortified castle.

I would recommend this collection to anyone from 8 to 108 as the spirit and return to the truth, beauty and non-pretence of the written, spoken, storytelling word. To quote Rex Fairburn, while living in Devonport, "There are ferries at the bottom of my garden." Long may they weave their magical spells.

- Auckland University Press, $45

- Graham Brazier is a founding member of Hello Sailor, solo singer-songwriter and poetry jam MC, who contributed to the Hone Tuwhare tribute album and concerts.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Entertainment

Premium
Entertainment

'Thrilled to be here': How Jeff Goldblum remains a cultural icon at 72

08 Jun 06:00 AM
Entertainment

Kiwi first-time farmer on what Clarkson's reality show gets right and wrong

07 Jun 09:00 PM
Entertainment

Clarkson's Farm season four trailer

Why wallpaper works wonders

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Entertainment

Premium
'Thrilled to be here': How Jeff Goldblum remains a cultural icon at 72

'Thrilled to be here': How Jeff Goldblum remains a cultural icon at 72

08 Jun 06:00 AM

New York Times: The actor insists his persona is “not a performance” - it’s his lifeblood.

Kiwi first-time farmer on what Clarkson's reality show gets right and wrong

Kiwi first-time farmer on what Clarkson's reality show gets right and wrong

07 Jun 09:00 PM
Clarkson's Farm season four trailer

Clarkson's Farm season four trailer

Premium
Tom Cruise really, really loves the movies

Tom Cruise really, really loves the movies

07 Jun 08:00 PM
BV or thrush? Know the difference
sponsored

BV or thrush? Know the difference

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP