Does New Zealand Have Poets? Poem by Terence George Craddock (Spectral Images and Images Of Light)

does New Zealand breed poets
I though they only breed horses
herds of dairy cows and sheep?

All Blacks Silver Ferns and and sport...?

has New Zealand ever had a poet?

there was one once
world famous in
in in New Zealand?

she lived in France
too I think for awhile?
name of Katherine?

really? yes really! about a century ago...

died there? where?

her head best
served up on a silver platter
at institute parties?

old cuttings on her once
made the Morning Herald?
really? really I was not born then...

but surely
she is studied
yawn... in NZ literary classes?

I would not know...
I thought the NZ government
cancelled literary studies?

go on?
no one else then
no one else?

dunno that man
they say wrote that poem
pinned to a door at

Winlatter Forest
Visitor Centre
during one
of the usual slight
downpours

'the poet
may have been
one Barry Crump
(or Grump, or Gruimp)
from New Zealand'

no that's Crumpie
wrote semi-autobiographical
humourous novels

myths of rugged
outdoors man
comic Kiwi yarns

guess the kiwis
got no poets
then just sports

yea guess so
New Zealand
is famous

for never funding
literary artists
must be why they got none?


Copyright © Terence George Craddock
Quotation from the reference 'Poetry - Belfagan Women's Morris'.