Table of Contents
- Contents
- Acknowledgements vi
- 1 HISTORIES 1
- 1 Maui’s Alternate Prayer 2
- 2 Love song for Michael King 3
- 3 The Charge of the Brown Brigade 4
- 4 William Colenso, On the Eve of the Treaty’s 50th Jubilee . .
. 6
- 5 Hanoverian London 8
- 6 After Reading W.S. Merwin’s The Carrier of Ladders and then
finding the Extinct Birds of NZ website. 9
- 7 Buller’s Honour 11
- 8 Letters to Lord Ranfurly 12
- 9 Born again 14
- 10A decade a maze 15
- 11 Reconciling 16
- 12 About Anna Seward’s Elegy on Captain Cook, 1780. 17
- 13 What if . . . 18
- 2 POETICS 19
- 14 Negative Capabilities 20
- 15 Review 21
- 16 The Winding Stair 22
- 17 Seven Voices 23
- 18 Took: A Preface to “The Magpies” 24
- 19 Gesturing at the Sky 25
- 20 Redemption song 26
- 21 Investigator 27
- 22 Letting the sun go down 28
- 23 Elegy for Traveling 29
- 3 TIKANGA / CUSTOMS
- 24 Posture Dance 32
- 25 Va-rua Tupu 33
- 26 Fragments of a Maori Odyssey 35
- 27 Arohanui 36
- 28 Citizen of the World 37
- 29 Starboard 38
- 30 wake 39
- 31 Cape Return 40
- 32A Poem for Whangarei on the Opening of the New
- City Library 41
- 33 Messenger 43
- 34 God and Fathers 44
- 4 PERSONAL 47
- 35 Biographical Data 48
- 36 Hui 50
- 37 Songs 51
- 38 On Flowering Ground 52
- 39 Lunch with Frank O’Hara 54
- 40 The Price 55
- 41 Rangatahi 56
- 42 Waiata Whaiaipo: Lover’s Song 57
- 43 Love 58
- 44 Boyle 59
- 45 Ata Wai 60
- 46 Rumination 61
- 47 Spines of Smoke 63
- 48 Vissi D’Arte, Vissi D’Amore 64
- 49 My Uncool Popular Tunes 65
- 50 Kick-started by a Bananarama Track 67
- 51 Civilization 68
- 52 Note to PJ 69
- 53 When I meet people here 70
- 54 Northland Museums 72
- 5 FORESHORE AND SEABED POEMS 77
- 55 For sure 78
- 56 After the UN Rapporteur Supported Maori
- Customary Rights 79
- 57 Nga- Tohu Whenua 80
- 58 Suite of Poems Addressed to Prime Minister Helen Clark
81
- 59 Poetics Tunnel 85
- 60 One Art 86
- 61 Fancy that 87
- 62 Canst Thou Draw Out Leviathan with an Hook? 88
- 63 Let’s Karanga The Whole Thing Off 89
- 64 Manawawera 90
- 65 Someone Asks Us Why 91
- 66 It Will Leave You 92
- 67 The Sneeze 93
- 68 Greenstone Monologues 94
- 69 Spiralling Ground 96
- 70 Karakia 98
Promotional Information
Robert Sullivan is one of New Zealand's and the Pacific's foremost
poets, passionate, provocative and always transcendant. In his new
collection, he shouts Ha! to the Sky. Take a deep breath, fill your
lungs and join him. -- Witi Ihimaera, author of Whale Rider Robert
Sullivan has established a reputation as the leading poet of his
generation in the Pacific. -- Albert Wendt
About the Author
Robert Sullivan is a member of the Maori tribes Nga Puhi of
Northland in New Zealand and Kai Tahu of the South Island. He is
also of Galway Irish descent. He has received several national New
Zealand book awards for his multi-genre work. Since 1990 he has
written five books of poetry published by Auckland University Press
(most recently Captain Cook in the Underworld, which is also a
libretto for a composition by John Psathas, and Voice Carried My
Family), a graphic novel illustrated by Chris Slane called Maui:
legends of the outcast, and a children's book Weaving earth and
sky: myths and legends of Aotearoa (Random House) - which won both
Book of the Year and the Non-Fiction Category in the 2003 New
Zealand Post Children's Book Awards. His first book, Jazz Waiata,
won the PEN (NZ) Best First Book of Poetry award. He has most
recently co-edited with Professors Albert Wendt and Reina Whaitiri
an anthology of Polynesian poetry in English, Whetu Moana (AUP and
University of Hawaii Press, 2003) which won the Montana NZ Book
Award in the reference and anthology category. In 1998 he was the
Literary Fellow at the University of Auckland, and in 2001 the
Distinguished Visiting Writer at the University of Hawai'i.