Domination Not Needed

Poetry in this country has reached the stage where it no longer needs to be self-conscious about being New Zealand poetry, in the opinion of the poet Peter Bland. One need be dominated neither by the shadow of British colonialism nor by the Great New Zealand Thing, Allen Curnow's nationalism of isolation and exile in an alien land.

Mr Bland was speaking to the Literary Society on "Poetry and Everyday Life". His theme was the existence of great opportunities for poetry of personal relationships.

Mr Bland is a Yorkshireman, who has been in this country for 10 years. The reaction of most new arrivals in this alien, half-formed place has usually been a frantic search to replace the roots behind in their country of origin, to seize any sort of clothes to cover the mental nakedness, no matter how ill-fitting.

The materialistic "suburban ethic" that arose in this way was mentally very limiting. Only by letting one's roots grow naturally, and by concentrating on personal relationships could one rise above mental deadness.