kaupapa: new zealand poets, world issues *buy*
Editors: Hinemoana Baker and Maria McMillan
Published 2007, Development Resource Centre
Wellington
'Explain the facts of life to me / in every system of thought / the world has ever known...' asks Will Christie.
Kaupapa answers her call. In an age of too much information and too little substance, political poetry is more important than ever.
Speaking to the tradition of waiata tawhito, of war poetry, of redemption songs and resistance, Kaupapa is a compelling new anthology from forty-five new and established New Zealand poets.
Batman and James Cook, rugby games and cemeteries, battles, hostages and homophobia - Kaupapa is a book of language stolen and land reclaimed, of New Zealand poets taking on the world.
Tusiata Avia crosses borders, James Brown explains capitalism, Marty Smith takes us to Te Urewera and Helen Lehndorf takes us down a small town's dirty river. Kate Camp edures some less than edifying documentaries, L E Scott addresses Black leadership. 'Shh!' writes Aroha Tapara Lowe, 'grit your teeth' - you never know what might be stolen next...
New Zealand poets are kicking up the dust. Political poetry, say the editors, can reach people and move them in ways that a list of facts or an earnest documentary can't.
'Some of the most beautiful lines in the collection for me are from Alice Miller's poem,' says editor Hinemoana Baker: "...throngs of tiny ambulances clamouring over us / buzzing their barely audible alarms."
'Perhaps Kaupapa is about making these 'alarms' more audible,' says Hinemoana.
There are moments of calm in this collection. Dinah Hawken thinks about forgiveness. '...Hope,' writes Mariana Isara, is 'a slippery thing, without / wings that runs on silently...'
A collection of extraordinary poems full of impact and integrity. Kaupapa is a dynamic anthology that shows New Zealand political poetry is alive, kicking and planting a flag in an issue near you.
Or chopping one down...
Kaupapa