Essential New Zealand Poems, edited by Siobhan Harvey, James Norcliffe and Harry Ricketts, has a large representation of poets from these parts.
Jenny Powell, Richard Reeve, Brian Turner, Sue Wootton, prize-winning Vincent O'Sullivan, David Howard, Kay McKenzie Cooke, Rhian Gallagher, Diane Brown and Nick Ascroft all make appearances.
Lauris Edmond and Bill Sewell put together the first edition of Essential New Zealand Poems (Godwit, 2001). This had more than 200 poems, from more than 100 poets. The new edition has strictly 150 poems from 150 poets.
A poem can hook the heart, intellect, ear or eye and a gut feeling is all part of the reader's experience. This latest book is a neat dipping dish into what we do well. The cloth-bound cover gives this book a warmth and also features photographs of our country.
I like how this book is a little celebration of a genre. Poetry does not give answers as such, but it engages readers intellectually and emotionally. Michael Harlow's And, Yes concludes:
The greenwild call of spring
that waits over the hill,
and here in love's bed
wants me you to kiss
and all our trulys touch.
And that is the story
about yes: never trust
a god who does not dance.
This book would make a great gift. The poems begin from the 1950s. This is our voice: distinctive, funny, challenging, moving and surprising. Lauris Edmond said in 1998: ''It has always been true that in dealing with the dilemmas of ordinary life - the inescapable moral, personal, spiritual, even practical decisions that are constantly to be made - people turn to poetry, spoken, or sung, or read. They look for refreshment, for illumination, insight, pleasure, relief.''
This new book carries on the tradition.
- Hamesh Wyatt lives in Bluff. He reads and writes poetry.
