New Zealand Poetry

At Your Own Risk Mate

by Sandi Sartorelli

Sandi Sartorelli – At Your Own Risk Mate The sign said Enter At Your Own Risk and I want you to know I nearly didn’t go. If it had said Danger Keep Out maybe I would’ve gone home. Like I … Continue reading

Possession No. 33

by Chris Price

Chris Price – Possession no. 33 I was dusting my head with my hair when the jaw shot out of my filing cabinet with a clack of dental castanets. Someone was pulling my strings. Then my legs began to jitter … Continue reading

Te Mata Peak

by Harry Ricketts

(for Tommy and Maddy) Here’s the track. Below left, the Tukituki ribbons away; to the right, scalloped slopes, dotted with dandelion, thistle, pine. The eye bounces hillock to hillock, greedy for distance, like the imperial imagination some would have it. … Continue reading

Graveyard Poem

by Sue Wootton

Sue Wootton – Graveyard Poem (2012) In a cemetery in sunlight with names wept into granite, I lie on a grave under a defoliating oak, crisp leaves flittering. Concrete cold creeps into my spine, aligns me with death. But the … Continue reading

Terra Australis Incognita

by Nicola Easthope

The bay opens with inland promise. We haul our wind and stand in for it. Smoke ascends from the shore – I think this a favourable opportunity. Two canoes coming in from the sea: one under sail and the other … Continue reading