It also made No 5 on New Zealand's bestseller list, has been reprinted several times and translated into Spanish and Ukrainian.
Marsh's second collection, Dark Sparring, once again speaks to a Pasifika audience but adds cultural threads, cross-pollination and hybridity.
A CD is included, with musical backing from Tim Page again.
When her mother died, Marsh took up Muay Thai kickboxing.
From sparring she learnt her body could swing, pivot, move with a raw instinct in defence and attack. Through grief and mourning this latest collection took shape. ''Blackbird'' concludes:
The girl reaches out her hands
to take her mother's
then decides
this is no time for decorum.
The girl rises and takes her mother's shuddering body to hers
she cradles her
they rise and fall
like the ocean off the coast of Savai'i
emerald green
deep and fishless.
Then,
on opening her eyes
the girl remembers
it is her mother who has died
it is her sister who is sinking
and it is her arms that are empty.
Dark Sparring is full of fire and nerve. It has rhythm and ferocity.
- Hamesh Wyatt lives in Bluff. He reads and writes poetry.
