John Graham: Ultima Thule

Reviewed by PENNY BIEDER

John Graham lives in retirement on Great Barrier Island "from where he now casts a nostalgic eye back upon some of the landmarks and implications of his journey, and on the traces left of friends and lovers".

These poems may be short, simple and to the point but they reach back a great distance to rejoice in a life intensely lived as a non-conformist and a close observer of love and friendship, and the devastating effects of war.

The title poem (which means most distant, unknown land) is a tribute to his exiled friend, the German Jewish poet Karl Wolfskehl, who fled here and stayed until his death.

Publisher: Hazard Press

Price: $24.95

* Penny Bieder is a freelance writer