Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Hawke's Bay Live Poets Society - keeping poetry alive in HB

By Brenda Vowden
Napier Courier·
2 Mar, 2021 04:00 PM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Bill Sutton (left) with Radio Kidnappers host Jeremy Roberts.

Bill Sutton (left) with Radio Kidnappers host Jeremy Roberts.

Turning 29 is not usually celebrated with much hoopla, but for the Hawke's Bay Live Poets Society, (HBLPS) this year's birthday is another reminder it is the longest-running poetry group in New Zealand. And another reason for a bit of a fuss is to farewell one of the original members who is retiring from the committee.

Dr Bill Sutton has been involved from the early days of the poetry group's 1992 inception, when it was started by Keith Thorsen. Keith was employed at the time by the Hastings City Council as their Community Arts organiser.

"I read in the Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune about the first meeting of this exciting new group, and knew immediately I must attend the next meeting," Bill says.

He had already been reading contemporary poetry for nearly 30 years and had dabbled with writing his own poems since the early '60s.

"What I learned from Keith, over several years, was the importance of performance skills. It's one thing to write poems, quite another to perform them as 'spoken word' in front of a live audience."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Keith also had organising skills, Bill says, and soon acquired a group of enthusiasts who formed the core of HBLPS.

"Several of them are still active members, who attend and perform at nearly every meeting, although the one who in my opinion contributed most was our secretary/treasurer in the early years, Jenny Dobson, who subsequently moved on to other roles."

The poem Bill read at his first meeting, performed at the former Cat & Fiddle tavern, was well received, and he was captivated by Keith's vision of a live poetry group.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"The group provided an affordable venue for poets from throughout the Hawke's Bay region, and also aimed at attracting well-known poets from throughout Aotearoa-New Zealand, as our paid guests, to help raise the local standards. This vision was realised, and continues, with further developments, to today."

Active membership of HBLPS has remained at around 20-30, with a larger number attending meetings occasionally.

"The poetry venue has changed several times, but most of our 11 meetings a year are currently held in the Hastings Community Arts Centre. We choose a different venue for our annual Christmas parties, and have also held picnic meetings at a range of locations."

Bill says an important recent development is the formation of a new group, the Napier Live Poets, which meets monthly at Community Arts Napier (CAN).

"Despite some initial concerns, both poetry groups have remained viable and interesting. Many of our local poets regularly attend meetings of both groups."

There has been a steady turnover of participants in the HBLPS, but they've always managed to attract enough new faces to keep the group financially viable and poetically interesting, Bill says. And those attending meetings are not always performers.

"While most of those who attend meetings enjoy reading their own poems, some who attend prefer just to listen. Over time, many of these spectators decide they may as well step up and read some poems of their own."

He says the loud applause given to all participants, both when they step up to the microphone, then again after they've performed, provides an encouraging environment.

"So do the suppers contributed to by our members."

There have been other interesting innovations over the years, including regular poetry readings broadcast by Radio Kidnappers.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"These provide an additional performance opportunity for our invited guest poets, both local and from further afield. Successful joint meetings have been arranged in both Gisborne and Taupo to allow Hawke's Bay poets to meet with poets from those two regions."

Other major events initiated by HBLPS have included the Hawke's Bay Poetry Conference, staged in 2013 as a national event, which attracted more than 100 registered participants and two regional meetings, the East-West Poetry Fests in 2016 and 2018, which were organised by HBLPS but staged in Palmerston North to encourage poets from throughout the lower central North Island – Wairarapa, Hawke's Bay, Manawatu, Horowhenua, and the Kapiti Coast.

Both fests were well attended and paid their own way from registration fees.

Bill says he has greatly enjoyed being a contributor to HBLPS.

"It not only gave me new friends, but helped me develop the writing skills that resulted in two published poetry books. I also enjoyed my several years as secretary/treasurer."

He says more recently, as he entered his 70s, it became clear an infusion of younger people was needed to take over these roles.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"This has happened, and it has given me huge satisfaction to see how well the new recruits are performing. Both of the two Hawke's Bay Poetry groups look set to continue meeting for years to come."

• Hawke's Bay Live Poets Society, 29th birthday meeting, Monday March 8, 7pm, Hastings Art Centre, Russell Rd. Napier Live Poets, open mic night, first Monday of each month from 6pm, Creative Arts Napier. Entry free.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

How new speed limits are making Hastings schools safer

Hawkes Bay Today

Heavy rain watch north of Napier, potential to be upgraded to warning

Hawkes Bay Today

Four crashes in Hawke’s Bay send four to hospital


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

How new speed limits are making Hastings schools safer
Hawkes Bay Today

How new speed limits are making Hastings schools safer

The changes are part of Hastings' early rollout of lower speed limits.

16 Jul 03:49 AM
Heavy rain watch north of Napier, potential to be upgraded to warning
Hawkes Bay Today

Heavy rain watch north of Napier, potential to be upgraded to warning

16 Jul 01:20 AM
Four crashes in Hawke’s Bay send four to hospital
Hawkes Bay Today

Four crashes in Hawke’s Bay send four to hospital

15 Jul 11:58 PM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP