KEY POINTS:
Some five years ago, a musical associate and I mused that by the year 2015, everyone in New Zealand would have either played in, been related to, or held an organisational part in the musical landscape of Antipodean rock 'n' roll.
In the late 19th century, coinciding with the birth of jazz, everyone wanted to be involved with poetry. If Edward Lear was absurd (in the finest fashion, The Owl and the Pussycat), Shakespeare's every word was hung on to like a French fashion garment worn by the dandy Baudelaire - who, in his lifetime was famed only for translating Poe from English into French.
Now I see the acorn falls not far from the tree. The spoken word is alive, thriving, surviving, thanks to Kerouac and Sylvia Plath, Dylan Thomas on a drunken promise, Burroughs, Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti and the grandfather of rap, in my humble opinion, Gil Scott Heron who ruled, "The revolution will not be televised!"
Of course, these aforementioned are not from "the country shaped like a butterfly's wing", as Auckland poet Bob Orr so beautifully describes New Zealand in his cornucopia of our wondrous local talent.
Contemporary New Zealand Poets in Performance is a masterpiece. The book is a companion volume to Classic New Zealand Poets in Performance, also edited by Ross and Kemp, and included twin CDs from the Waiata Recordings Archives circa 1974.
I had the privilege of playing with Rick Bryant at a bohemian farewell to the late Alan Brunton. He, Murray Edmond and Michele Leggott had edited Big Smoke: New Zealand Poems 1960-75, and all three appear once more in this fine tome which, to me, shows on an international stage of written page. It stands with pride and diversity of culture, individuality and class unsurpassed.
And so I give a fond farewell to Sally Rodwell, Alan's ex and fellow founder of Red Mole; the end of a beautiful era. I feel Sally, who died last year, could not live without her literary soulmate: a minute's silence, please (I am sincere in this statement).
I was truly humbled when asked to review Contemporary NZ Poets in Performance and I have to thank my mother for giving me the foresight to discern gold from rubbish. Along with the 27 wordsmiths, the book, like its predecessor, also includes two CDs of some magical readings - hold your breath at the rare reading by Janet Frame - plus selected bibliographies.
From Bill Manhire, who has been our patron saint of creative writing, to Apirana Taylor's marae-trodden wisdom and beauty, not a jandal or footprint has been put wrong in this literary terra firma.
Bibliographies for each poet have been included, along with an appendix of various readings to laugh, cry, whisper and wonder at. As Kemp and Ross state, the recordings serve to remind us as a nation we are like the Irish; not a silent people, but voiced in the landscape of our sometimes harsh and beatific environment.
From my point of view as a school leaver at age 15, I cannot truly expand on the academic attributes of these works but must view them from a heart spent living above a bookshop in my formative years and travelling the worlds beer-soaked bars, where much modern poetry has its traditions and soul.
I will, in my twilight years, press the leaves of the puka puka tree (book) until dried to a parchment and write what I hope may be a slight but heartfelt tribute to what appears in this collection. My computer and I remain at war but my weapon, my pen, may yet prove to be as valid as Bill Gate's fortified castle.
I would recommend this collection to anyone from 8 to 108 as the spirit and return to the truth, beauty and non-pretence of the written, spoken, storytelling word. To quote Rex Fairburn, while living in Devonport, "There are ferries at the bottom of my garden." Long may they weave their magical spells.
- Auckland University Press, $45
- Graham Brazier is a founding member of Hello Sailor, solo singer-songwriter and poetry jam MC, who contributed to the Hone Tuwhare tribute album and concerts.
