Book of Rotorua rhyme just in time for poetry day

A two-year labour of love bears fruit this Friday when the Mad Poets Society celebrates National Poetry Day with the launch of their book Te Reo Pohewa - The Spirit of Rotorua in Verse.
The book is dedicated to Don Stafford, who told book editor Jackie Evans the society should publish a book themed on Rotorua. That was three years ago and Mrs Evans has been collating poems since.
It will be launched at the Arawa Room in the Rotorua Library on Friday at 5pm with poets giving readings.
"I met up with Don Stafford on the street one day and he suggested the Mad Poets Society do a collection of poems with a Rotorua theme and that's how it began," Mrs Evans said.
"It's been a labour of love ever since. Everyone has contributed, as well as some from outside of the society. It was very hard to edit, it's taken me two years."
The book features a section of poems written by young people as well as poems written by Mad Poets members who have since died. The late Marilyn Gardiner and Eru Potaka-Dewes have a number of poems featured.
The Mad Poets meet once a week and Mrs Evans said each meeting had a theme for which poems were written.
This is the eighth anthology the society has published and Mrs Evans said that she already had 30 poems for the next book.
Other events for National Poetry Day will take place on Friday at the library. A limerick competition is being held, while McLeods Booksellers is hosting an event called 3 Blokes, Their Poetry and a Book Shop from 6pm to 7.30pm.
Poetry postcards will be on sale at the Night Market tomorrow and on the streets on Friday, while Rotorua Library is also hosting a haiku exhibition.