Blog Archives

An account of trauma, Michael Hulse

Allen Curnow: Collected Poems Elizabeth Caffin and Terry Sturm (eds) Auckland University Press, $60.00, ISBN 9781869408510 Allen Curnow’s poetry is a transcript of trauma. “Morning by morning incorruption / Puts on corruption”: this most fundamental of thoughts, borne in upon…
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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Poetry and the poem, Michael Hulse

Selected Poems  Jenny Bornholdt Victoria University Press, $40.00, ISBN 9781776560660 If I begin by saying that Jenny Bornholdt gives the impression of being a very modest person, it’s not because this review is to be an assessment of her character,…
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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Tireless affectionate scrutiny, Michael Hulse

Being Here: Selected Poems  Vincent O’Sullivan Victoria University Press, $40.00 ISBN 9780864739315 Let the Writer Stand  Judith Dell Panny Steele Roberts, $30.00 ISBN 9781927242803 Vincent O’Sullivan is a writer of such prodigious gifts that the Collected Poems I can’t be…
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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Finding the poetry, Michael Hulse

Gleam  Sarah Broom Auckland University Press, $25.00, ISBN 9781869407704 The Baker’s Thumbprint Paula Green Seraph Press, $25.00, ISBN 9780473236311 Family Songbook John Newton Victoria University Press, $25.00, ISBN 9780864738394 Enough Louise Wallace Victoria University Press, $25.00, ISBN 9780864739131 The sad…
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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Late style, Michael Hulse

The Yellow Buoy C K Stead Auckland University Press, $28.00, ISBN 9781869407353 The Blue Coat Elizabeth Smither Auckland University Press, $25.00, ISBN 9781869407360 Collected Poems 1956-2011  Peter Bland Steele Roberts, $46.00, ISBN 9781877577994 These writers are past their three-score-and-ten –…
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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Punching above its poetic weight, Michael Hulse

99 Ways into New Zealand Poetry  Paula Green and Harry Ricketts Vintage, $44.99, ISBN 9781869791780   First, let me get off my chest a grouch about the physical presentation of this book. It’s thick, it’s heavy, and it won’t open…
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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Huddle and glut, Michael Hulse

Further Convictions Pending: Poems 1998-2008 Vincent O’Sullivan Victoria University Press, $35.00,  ISBN 9780864736062 In “Being here”, the first of the 44 new poems in this generous book, Vincent O’Sullivan states explicitly for the first time an important position: It has…
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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Sheering off, Michael Hulse

The Love School: Personal Essays Elizabeth Knox Victoria University Press, $33.00,  ISBN 9780864735928 Paremata, the childhood novella which followed her debut novel After Z-Hour, was my own first encounter with Elizabeth Knox’s writing. The copy she gave me is inscribed…
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Posted in Essays, Literature, Non-fiction, Review

The Dr Johnson of New Zealand literature, Michael Hulse

Book Self C K Stead Auckland University Press, $38.99,  ISBN 9781869404123 It isn’t in the spirit of the age that a Goethe will still attract his Eckermann, or a Dr Johnson his Boswell. A companion free of all other commitments,…
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Posted in Literature, Non-fiction, Review

Intimations of mortality, Michael Hulse

Blame Vermeer Vincent O’Sullivan Victoria University Press, $25.00,  ISBN 9780864735515 The Black River C K Stead  Auckland University Press, $25.00,  ISBN 978869403850 Sol Andrew Johnston Victoria University Press, $25.00,  ISBN 9789864735492 The Ponies Bernadette Hall Victoria University Press, $25.00,  ISBN…
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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
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