Poet Laureate Selina Tusitala Marsh tells of the time she went swimming in deep, deep water with novelist Lloyd Jones at Byron Bay. The first time I meet Lloyd Jones is nearly my last. He’d promised me breakfast and a dip near Captain Cook’s Lookout – I should’ve suspected something then. Indigenous encounters and all. We … Read more
New Zealand poet laureate Selina Tusitala Marsh marks the very fine and wonderful occasion of the birth of a daughter to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her partner Clarke Gayford. Jacinda and Clarke and the Baby and Us: A Rondeau The baby’s here, the baby’s here! Aotearoa, New Zealand, what a year! Jacinda, our partnered … Read more
New verse by the poet laureate of New Zealand, Selina Tusitala Marsh. How To Woo Your Husband I will sing a Song of Solomon upon you whose very teeth I thought I knew whose rate of calcification was by my very calculation worked out these 21 years of marriage through from my own … Read more
Every day this week the Spinoff Review of Books is publishing a new poem in the build-up to the Phantom Billstickers national poetry day on Friday. Today: ‘The Dogs of Talimatau’ by Selina Tusitala Marsh The Dogs of Talimatau (for Uncle Siva) My son finds a tail on the lawn a paw on the drive … Read more
Happy birthday today, Sam Hunt! To mark the occasion we present a poem by Selina Tusitala Marsh. Orange Crayon Stick Figure Man (on the occasion of reading “with’”Sam Hunt at the Parnell Rose Gardens, only to discover that “with” was employed euphemistically to describe sharing the same venue, but performing at different times) … Read more