Preface: Gregory O’Brien
Introduction: Mark Williams
A Colonist in his Garden — William Pember Reeves
Te Whetu Plains — Edward Tregear
The Silent Land — Charles Brasch
To Introduce the Landscape — Allen Curnow
Poem in the Matukituki Valley — James K. Baxter
Opening the Book — John Newton
The Womb — Apirana Taylor
Erica — Mary Ursula Bethell
Hope — Dinah Hawken
Pathway to the Sea — Ian Wedde
Ornamental Gorse — Chris Orsman
Response — Mary Ursula Bethell
Antipodean — Andrew Johnston
Vegetable Garden Poem IV — Cilla McQueen
A Balanced Bait in Handy Pellet Form — Allen Curnow
Colville — Kendrick Smithyman
Winter I Was — Gregory O’Brien
From The Beaches — Robin Hyde
Wyndham — Janet Frame
A Valley Called Moonshine — Sam Hunt
Chevy — Brian Turner
The Child in the Gardens: Winter — Vincent O’Sullivan
A Raised Voice — Allen Curnow
The Last Ones — Robin Hyde
Forerunners — Charles Brasch
Sad Joke on a Marae — Apirana Taylor
Polynesia — Allen Curnow
From Soul Traps — Alistair te Ariki Campbell
The Mountains of Tau’ú — Albert Wendt
From Star Waka — Robert Sullivan
Landfall in Unknown Seas — Allen Curnow
From The Immigrant Cycle, i, ii, vi, ix — Kapka Kassabova
Cabin Fever — Anne French
The Return — Alistair te Ariki Campbell
Sophie Travelled Backwards on the Train — Jenny Bornholdt
Going to Moscow — Lauris Edmond
From Ladies Mile — Michele Leggott
What Is It Makes the Stranger — Robin Hyde
A Problem While Translating the Treaty of Waitangi — Glenn Colquhoun
At the Grave of Governor Hobson — C.K. Stead
We, Who Live in Darkness — Hone Tuwhare
Maori to Pakeha — J.C. Sturm
Bound to — Roma Potiki
He Waiata mo Te Kare — James K. Baxter
The Wife Speaks — Mary Stanley
Wife to Husband — Fleur Adcock
How to Take Your Clothes Off at the Picnic — Bill Manhire
The Legend of Marcello Mastroianni’s Wife — Elizabeth Smither
The Evader’s Cookbook — Anne French
Praising the Cook — Jenny Bornholdt
Sinking It — Vincent O’Sullivan
From The Clodian Songbook — C.K. Stead
The Cave — A.R.D. Fairburn
The Boyfriends — Jenny Bornholdt
Against Coupling — Fleur Adcock
Waitomo — Kendrick Smithyman
Demande de Midi — Lauris Edmond
From DIA — Michele Leggott
From General Motors — Leigh Davis
From The Harbour Poems — Dinah Hawken
A Note to Lily Kraus — Denis Glover
Wedding Song — Jenny Bornholdt
After the Wedding — C.K. Stead
I, God Uphere — Albert Wendt
Secular Litany — M.K. Joseph
The Ikons — James K. Baxter
Iconoclast — Bernadette Hall
The Maori Jesus — James K. Baxter
Glass Sonnet — Bernadette Hall
The Bushwoman — Eileen Duggan
Pioneer Woman with Ferrets — Ruth Dallas
The Bushfeller — Eileen Duggan
Shearing — David McKee Wright
The Road Builders — Denis Glover
Fish for All That Rise as Rise Wet Stars — Vincent O’Sullivan
The Casual Man — Denis Glover
Song in the Hutt Valley — Louis Johnson
Carp — Kendrick Smithyman
Any Time Now — Allen Curnow
The Pocket Mirror — Janet Frame
The Camera Is a Small Room — Gregory O’Brien
The Man Dean Went to Photograph — Jenny Bornholdt
Lone Kauri Road, I — Allen Curnow
White Wind — Chris Orsman
Young Knowledge — Robin Hyde
A Note on the Russian War — Janet Frame
Children — Bill Manhire
The Prodigals — Damien Wilkins
A Cortège of Daughters — Elizabeth Smither
From Sonnets to Carlos — Ian Wedde
Magasin — Bill Manhire
Sanary — Katherine Mansfield
From Cancer Daybook — Wystan Curnow
O Lung Flowering Like a Tree — Janet Frame
Anorexia — Bernadette Hall
To the Pulao — Ian Wedde
Moa — Anna Jackson
Old Memories of Earth — R.A.K. Mason
To a Maori Figure Cast in Bronze — Hone Tuwhare
Wild Dogs Under My Skirt — Tusiata Avia
On the Death of her Body — James K. Baxter
You Will Know When You Get There — Allen Curnow
Fish — Brian Turner
Night — Eileen Duggan
Light Is the Word for Light — Dinah Hawken
The Names — Lauris Edmond
My Father Today — Sam Hunt
Carmen Seaculare: For Carol and Abe — Ian Wedde
Decoration — Mary Ursula Bethell
Tangi — Hone Tuwhare
Drunken Gunners — M.K. Joseph
No Ordinary Sun — Hone Tuwhare
Instructions for Bombing with Napalm — Janet Frame
Taiaha Haka Poem — Apirana Taylor
A Fall of Rain at Mitimiti: Hokianga — Hone Tuwhare
The Sounds — Andrew Johnston
The Bathers — Jenny Bornholdt
Swimming with the Dead Woman — Elizabeth Smither
Full Fathom Five — A.R.D. Fairburn
Dark Torch — Michele Leggott
And My Heart Goes Swimming — Roma Potiki
The Tides Run Up the Wairau — Eileen Duggan
The Long Harbour — Mary Ursula Bethell
At Dead Low Water — Allen Curnow
Littoral — Murray Edmond
From The Islands — Charles Brasch
Home Thoughts — Denis Glover
What are known in New Zealand — Wystan Curnow
Sonnet of Brotherhood — R.A.K. Mason
Milky Way Bar — Bill Manhire
House and Land — Allen Curnow
The Old Place — Blanche Baughan
The Old Place — Hone Tuwhare
From Throw — Leigh Davis
Detail — Mary Ursula Bethell
Concrete — Stephanie de Montalk
Song of Allegiance — R.A.K. Mason
The Lady Fishermen — Anne French
Rhyme of the Dead Self — A.R.D. Fairburn
From Today Personal Poetry Is Dead — James Brown
Brown’s Bay, McGregors Bay — Paula Green
On Originality — Bill Manhire
Reading the Russians — Vincent O’Sullivan
Can I Do It? — Dinah Hawken
The Magpies — Denis Glover
Huia — Anna Jackson
Declining the Naked Horse — Bill Manhire
Duck — Bernadette Hall
When Animals Attack — Kate Camp
About Wasps — Murray Edmond
Ferret Trap — John Newton
The Ghost Moth — Lauris Edmond
The Parakeets at Karekare — Allen Curnow
Phar Lap — Bill Manhire
To Stanislaw Wyspianski — Katherine Mansfield
Latter-Day Geography Lesson — R.A.K. Mason
I’m Older Than You, Please Listen — A.R.D. Fairburn
Themes — Denis Glover
Painting Mount Taranaki — David Eggleton
From the Art Hotel — Wystan Curnow
Wilson Boys’ Boat — Brian Turner
Living Here — Cilla McQueen
Removing the Subsidy on Butter — Elizabeth Smither
Cashpoint: A Pantoum — James Brown
Zoetropes — Bill Manhire
Afterword: Arkadii Dragomoschenko
Chronological list of poems
Glossary of Maori and other Polynesian words and phrases
Notes on selected poems
Notes on the poets
Select bibliography
Acknowledgements