Te Whāriki: Reading Ten New Poets from Aotearoa
Anna Jackson, Dougal McNeill, Robert Sullivan (eds)
I found this a stimulating read, a read that I recommmed dipping into, sampling a variegated potpourri of pieces, of poets per se. Rather than attempting to view through from go to whoa, eh. More of which later.
Who are the ten ‘new’ poets selected here? Sam Duckor-Jones, Tayi Tibble, Claudia Jardine, essa may ranapiri, Rebecca Hawkes, Chris Tse, Oscar Upperton, Joanna Cho, Ruby Solly, Nafanua Purcell Kersel. The editors make it quite clear early on that this is a somewhat arbitrary selection of contemporary Aotearoa poetic talent, ‘Other poets...could as easily have been selected’ page 8). They further note that, ‘The ten we have chosen began publishing their work relatively recently and have done so to significant acclaim’ (pp. 8-9), although I could quibble and state that Chris Tse is hardly a ‘new poet’, given that the editors do rationalise his selection in their He Kupu Whakataki/Intoduction.
For each of the ten an essay extolling and – to various degrees of intensive critical analysis – exemplifying via extracts, has been prepared by a further ten aficionado critics, primarily academics based in two of this country’s universities. Indeed, paralleling the critics’ employment locale, the vast majority of the poets’ collections have been published by either Te Herenga Waka University Press or Auckland University Press.
More, each poet themselves has penned – at different lengths – a sort of vision encapsulating their own motivation, and each of these is mounted in a much larger font after a selection of their poetry, and just prior to the critical scrutiny. All the poets except Tayi Tibble that is. Just like the examinatory essays, these poets’ statements of intent vary in size and style. I really like essa may ranapiri’s sparse and sincere spiel – ‘All my words are just some more bullshit to deny the colonial destruction of our culture’ (page 90). Others meander somewhat.
The critical exegeses also vary in tone. Several are intense, intensive line by line x-rays of a poet’s – sometimes sole - collection and may well require more than one reading of a passage as to understand exactly a classical reference that has been employed, and why. Others are less scholarly and fully adhere to what Robert Sullivan so clearly states is the overriding purpose of this significant collection, namely, ‘The intention of this book is to draw literary and scholarly attention to new and young writers’ (page 60). Sullivan does exactly that in his own personalised approach to the toikupu of Tibble, whereby he draws in his own life as impacted by the poet, ‘reading poetry personally runs the risk of subsuming a more interesting text to the mundacity of one’s own expetriences’ (page 64). A couple of other critiques do likewise, such as Robin Peter’s nuanced appraisal of Ruby Solly.
What we have then, as noted above, is a somewhat variegated array of poets and their voices, and commentators and their critiques. A bit of a lucky dip. All good, though, because a reader will freshly discover a poet they know little about, or a review that makes them want to read a poet much more, such as David Eggleton’s illuminating essay about the powerful poetry of Nafanua Purcell Kersel. An essay which, by the way, references the recent collection of contemporary Pasifika poetry titled Katūīvei published by Massey University Press, but which is not mentioned earlier by the editors on page 14 where they adumbrate several ‘recent fine anthologies that have gathered diverse communities, diverse voices’.
Penultimately also, I want to praise the two chapters which precede the individual poet perambulations, namely on Potlucks and Poetry: the New Generation of Aotearoa Poets by Amy Maguerite, which is a cogent exposition of recent journals, and the excellent viscerally viewable Visual Poetry: Between Feeling and Form by Tru Paraha. Well-done, I say.
This then is a gallant gallimaufry worth sampling. For the editors are honest in their statement, ‘This is not a map of poetry in Aotearoa now, nor an encyclopedia or any other sort of exhaustive coverage. This is one account, and there will be dropped stitches we have missed along the way’ (page 14). Fair enough, given that the exponential explosions of small poetry presses have not been referenced much throughout. Te Whāriki, aka the entire carpet mesh of contemporary New Zealand kaitito, would have to be at least the double the size, and it is to everyones’ credit that this anthology is at the very least, an invigorating skinny-dip.
Which is where I began.
Anna Jackson, Dougal McNeill, Robert Sullivan (eds)
I found this a stimulating read, a read that I recommmed dipping into, sampling a variegated potpourri of pieces, of poets per se. Rather than attempting to view through from go to whoa, eh. More of which later.
Who are the ten ‘new’ poets selected here? Sam Duckor-Jones, Tayi Tibble, Claudia Jardine, essa may ranapiri, Rebecca Hawkes, Chris Tse, Oscar Upperton, Joanna Cho, Ruby Solly, Nafanua Purcell Kersel. The editors make it quite clear early on that this is a somewhat arbitrary selection of contemporary Aotearoa poetic talent, ‘Other poets...could as easily have been selected’ page 8). They further note that, ‘The ten we have chosen began publishing their work relatively recently and have done so to significant acclaim’ (pp. 8-9), although I could quibble and state that Chris Tse is hardly a ‘new poet’, given that the editors do rationalise his selection in their He Kupu Whakataki/Intoduction.
For each of the ten an essay extolling and – to various degrees of intensive critical analysis – exemplifying via extracts, has been prepared by a further ten aficionado critics, primarily academics based in two of this country’s universities. Indeed, paralleling the critics’ employment locale, the vast majority of the poets’ collections have been published by either Te Herenga Waka University Press or Auckland University Press.
More, each poet themselves has penned – at different lengths – a sort of vision encapsulating their own motivation, and each of these is mounted in a much larger font after a selection of their poetry, and just prior to the critical scrutiny. All the poets except Tayi Tibble that is. Just like the examinatory essays, these poets’ statements of intent vary in size and style. I really like essa may ranapiri’s sparse and sincere spiel – ‘All my words are just some more bullshit to deny the colonial destruction of our culture’ (page 90). Others meander somewhat.
The critical exegeses also vary in tone. Several are intense, intensive line by line x-rays of a poet’s – sometimes sole - collection and may well require more than one reading of a passage as to understand exactly a classical reference that has been employed, and why. Others are less scholarly and fully adhere to what Robert Sullivan so clearly states is the overriding purpose of this significant collection, namely, ‘The intention of this book is to draw literary and scholarly attention to new and young writers’ (page 60). Sullivan does exactly that in his own personalised approach to the toikupu of Tibble, whereby he draws in his own life as impacted by the poet, ‘reading poetry personally runs the risk of subsuming a more interesting text to the mundacity of one’s own expetriences’ (page 64). A couple of other critiques do likewise, such as Robin Peter’s nuanced appraisal of Ruby Solly.
What we have then, as noted above, is a somewhat variegated array of poets and their voices, and commentators and their critiques. A bit of a lucky dip. All good, though, because a reader will freshly discover a poet they know little about, or a review that makes them want to read a poet much more, such as David Eggleton’s illuminating essay about the powerful poetry of Nafanua Purcell Kersel. An essay which, by the way, references the recent collection of contemporary Pasifika poetry titled Katūīvei published by Massey University Press, but which is not mentioned earlier by the editors on page 14 where they adumbrate several ‘recent fine anthologies that have gathered diverse communities, diverse voices’.
Penultimately also, I want to praise the two chapters which precede the individual poet perambulations, namely on Potlucks and Poetry: the New Generation of Aotearoa Poets by Amy Maguerite, which is a cogent exposition of recent journals, and the excellent viscerally viewable Visual Poetry: Between Feeling and Form by Tru Paraha. Well-done, I say.
This then is a gallant gallimaufry worth sampling. For the editors are honest in their statement, ‘This is not a map of poetry in Aotearoa now, nor an encyclopedia or any other sort of exhaustive coverage. This is one account, and there will be dropped stitches we have missed along the way’ (page 14). Fair enough, given that the exponential explosions of small poetry presses have not been referenced much throughout. Te Whāriki, aka the entire carpet mesh of contemporary New Zealand kaitito, would have to be at least the double the size, and it is to everyones’ credit that this anthology is at the very least, an invigorating skinny-dip.
Which is where I began.
Review by Vaughan Rapatahana
(Te Ātiawa)
(Te Ātiawa)
Title: Te Whāriki: Reading Ten New Poets from Aotearoa
Editors: Anna Jackson, Dougal McNeill, Robert Sullivan
Publisher: Auckland University Press
ISBN: 9781776711314
RRP: $39.99
Available: bookshops
Editors: Anna Jackson, Dougal McNeill, Robert Sullivan
Publisher: Auckland University Press
ISBN: 9781776711314
RRP: $39.99
Available: bookshops
RSS Feed
