Shortlisted for the Best Lifestyle Book of the NZ Booklovers Awards 2025
“It was by looking at Ma¯ori oral poetry more closely that I came to ask what it is that a Pa¯keha¯ oral poem might sound like. And whether it is capable of holding the same power. Might a sea- shanty meet the energy of a haka? Can a hymn stand up to a mo¯teatea? To find out I went back to the ways that spoken English poetry first arrived in New Zealand: via sea-shanty and hymn, lullaby and nursery rhyme, working song, clapping song and skipping song. I also went back to what has often been the concern of oral poems, our histories.”
In this collection of poems Glenn Colquhoun explores a range of Pa¯keha¯ oral poetic forms; sea shanties, hymns, ballads, nursery rhymes and clapping songs. It is a companion volume to Three Women, his collection of poetry in Te Reo Ma¯ori, and is richly illustrated by Nigel Brown.
A soundtrack to the poems is available at www.glenncolquhoun.net
Format: Paperback
Imprint: Small New Zealand Publisher
Publication date: 01/01/2003
