Poets pack them in at Whanganui's Sarjeant gallery

Bill Manhire reciting at the Sarjeant Gallery last Friday.

A Whanganui audience flocked to hear poets Bill Manhire and Glenn Colquhoun recite at Sarjeant on the Quay last Friday.

The Phantom Bill Stickers National Poetry Day event was also a fundraising venture for a planned bronze statue of James K. Baxter.

Lesley Stead of the Guyton Group said it was hard to have to turn people away from the event when the gallery reached its capacity of 130 people.

"It would have been nice to have a bigger venue so no one had to miss out but the Sarjeant has such a wonderful atmosphere and both poets said how much they enjoyed reciting there," said Mrs Stead.

Mrs Stead said Bill Manhire gave very moving recitations of both his own and Baxter's work.

Manhire was New Zealand's first Poet Laureate when the award was established in 1997.

Born in Invercargill, he resides in Wellington where he established Victoria University's International Institute of Modern Letters.

Levin-based Glenn Colquhoun enhanced his recitations with carved wooden figures representing people in his poems.

"They were beautiful little totems that were specially made to help bring his poems to life," said Mrs Stead.

"He also sang some of his work which was just beautiful and he had everyone quite mesmerised."

Colquhoun is a doctor and youth worker as well as an award-winning poet and sometimes his work inspires his art, with poems like Today I do not Want to be a Doctor.

Mrs Stead said the amount raised from Friday's event has not been tallied yet but she estimates it will be around $2500.

It will be added to the $17,000 the Guyton Group have raised towards the cost of a life size bronze statue of Baxter created by his friend - sculptor Joan Morrell.

Morrell has already created the bronze bust of Baxter but a body cast in bronze is likely to cost around $95,000.

Mrs Stead said the trust has created a barometer on the post outside Paige's Book Gallery where the statue will stand, and will update this to show how the fundraising is going.