Angela Andrews
Angela Andrews has recently published her first book of poetry, Echolocation (Victoria University Press, 2007). She spends most of her time raising her two young sons, and has previously worked as a doctor. Her work also appears in Best New Zealand Poems 2005.
Andrews comments: ‘ “The Wedding Present” is about my grandfather. In the months leading up to my wedding he was very ill, and required continuous oxygen. It was during this time that he made a replica of a Maori carving he’d done in the eighties, when I was around four years old. The carving had hung in my grandparents’ lounge for as long as I could remember – this big kauri creature with paua shell eyes and fish scales – I was overawed by it as a child. My husband Nick is Maori, and had also admired it, and I think that must have been part of the reason my grandfather was driven to undertake such a big project, despite his physical state. We found out about all of this just before the wedding, when he presented us with the finished piece. He died two months later.’
Poem: The Wedding Present
