KIN OF PLACE - C. K. Stead. Essays on 20 New Zealand Writers. Auckland University Press. $39.95
This review can only serve as an introduction to the considerable scope of Carl Stead's literary achievements over the years. Poet, critic, teacher, novelist – even with a stint with the NZ Literary Fund Committee in the mid 1970's, executing astute judgement in the process. This is a 386 page book that I will devour completely by Christmas, I promise! As with so many successful academics, Stead has found strength in retirement. While many older poets try to re-create themselves in anthologies (recently, Big Smoke and Real Fire), Stead retains the grand overview. Foremost, I believe, Stead has always regarded New Zealand (or any) literature as enlightenment, entertainment, never literary profundity for its own sake. This marks him amongst 'the best' and not just best in New Zealand terms, but international terms as well. I eagerly read Stead's essay on R A K Mason, by far my favourite New Zealand poet. Economical, brutal, desperately sensitive - an emotional man who gained status as New Zealand's greatest poet. James K Baxter was introspectively orientated rather than extrovertly sensitive to peoples' problems, although he was sensitive to peoples' roles in society. Stead worries about Keri Hulme's commitment to the true art of the novel in her "Bone People". Hulme refers to her Maori ancestry but it is miniscule really - 12.25%, actually. Enough to suggest that her writing about Maori culture may be deliberately referential rather than deeply cultural. Not a popular view but Stead was not out to win popularity contests. Stead explores Ian Wedde's role in literary society - a splendid and original poet, he says. Read it for yourself. Modernism, post-modernism, the whole gambit is traversed in excruciating detail. If I am none the wiser, it is my fault, nobody else's. I wish the book well. It should become a standard reference for generations.

SKIDROW PENTHOUSE No.4. December 2001, Florida, USA. Literary Periodical.
It was refreshing to receive such an interesting and well-produced magazine as this. Edited by Rob Cool and Stephanie Dickson, this issue contains an interesting variation of stories, poems and graphics. Annoy-ingly, there is no paged table of contents and no bio-details of the contributors. For someone who is not within the 'orbit' of the publication, I am no wiser as to who is who and what part they have contributed to the wider scheme of things. There are inspired graphics by Doug Morph, Mary Herbert and Michael Weston and these complement the words perfectly. Nice to see this mix of the visual arts and literature. Suffice to say here that there are scores of print magazines coming out in the USA, but I think this must be one of the better ones.

APPROXIMATELY PARADISE by Don Schofield. Poetry published by the University Press of Florida. $US12.95 (paper). Here, for Orders
Schofield's poems have a heavy reference to Greece, conceived as an odyssey over twenty years in a search for identity in his new land (USA). The style of his poems is very straightforward. Some, like "Volcano" are very striking, where the human is at the centre of the experience: "it's not serenity / that sustains you / but rage / at the centre of peace" I found this book quite inspiring - certainly a welcome addition to my bookshelf.

HUMAN SCALE by Tony Beyer. Poems. Sudden Valley Press, 12 Manuka Street, Christchurch.$16.95
A welcome addition to Tony Beyer's growing list of publications. Beyer's dedicated attention to the intricacies of movement and mood is as striking as ever. You could say they are haikus strung together for the grand final. In "Attention Span / Long Bay 1963" (Beyer has a long memory!), "…girls wake / and lift their faces / out of their hair" culminating in "float like thought / up the cliff face to their nest". The unpretentiousness of Beyer's poems has always impressed me. He is striving to define art while creating it, as many so-called 'more important' poets in New Zealand are celebrated for. Beyer's poems can be personal – as in 'Personal Matter' "what war dad / the bloody war, you drongo / my war" In just a few words, the conflict of generations is explained. Beyer contemplates tides, moons, and weather cycles, sunrises and sets, and the wild life that hovers about it all, with microscopic intensity. I enjoyed them all - not a dud among them. I look forward to seeing more.

LISTENING TO THE RAIN. An anthology of Christchurch haiku and hiabun. Published by The Small White Teapot Haiku Group, Christchurch, New Zealand. Edited by Cyril Childs and Joanna Preston.
I must admit I am a haiku freak. Haibun, whatever. The distinction between those and other kinds of image poems are not of great interest to me, however. I am just pleased that now there appears to be a tradition now that there will be more books like this. This book celebrates the poetry of 13 Christchurch writers, a lucky number indeed. These all appear to be strictly structured according to the rules of haibun, haiku and the two forms related to haiku; senryu and tanka. There are many fresh images here: "tumbling / above a burnt hill / a black butterfly" by Nicholas Williamson while Joanna Preston weighs in with "waiting at the airport / the beaming smile / of some else's husband". This is a book that is giving me lasting enjoyment.

AUP (Auckland University Press) New Poets (2). Stu Bagby, Jane Gardner and Sonya Yellich. $21.95
Each poet here has something different to offer. The minutiae of everyday family living preoccupies Jane Gardner, who completed the Victoria University Creative Writing Course in 1995. Some remin-iscences and studied portraits of people long gone preoccupy Jane Gardner; competently done however. I found Stu Bagby's contribution of greater interest to me. His unassuming style contains many surprises and ambiguities, historical references, reminiscences of first love - again, really competent work. I was less comfortable with Sonja Yellich's work, but only marginally so. She uses language judiciously, with a careful ear for accents. However the stream of images sometimes doesn't form into a coherent whole. Where the sea is not far from her attention, I liked 'piper rock – point chev beach' best, the first section ending "the harbour bridge is / there / in the water". This book is good value.

SNOWING DOWN SOUTH Poems by Janet Charman. Auckland University Press, Private Bag 92109, Auckland. $21.95
Janet Charman writes engagingly and well about life in the suburbs without being overly political or pedantic. Few issues escape her, however, keeping her writing style simple and uncluttered. There is a 'beginning, middle and end' to most of her poems. Most are reasonably easy to understand. As such they are real 'reading' poems and Jane does indeed do a lot of readings. Some of the poems are quite classy, full of surprises - among my favourites are 'injection' where the mandatory injection by the sister send the punctured one off to "….Adams Bruce Confectioners / where chocolate fish float / belly up / and in the arm / the throb / the insult" There are lots of good lines in ' the present table' – the cancelled marriage "so I wed your Father / in blue / and it suited me / too". This is one of the best books of poems I have seen for some time.

WINTERSPIN 2002. And annual short poems issue of Spin. Edited by Patricia Prime and Bernard Gadd.
This selection resulted from an invitation to submit short poems including senryu and haibun. Overseas poets are represented here, including Janice M Bostok (Australia), Paule Adanski (Yugoslavia), and Leroy Gorman with "the elevator / opens / closed faces' But the New Zealand con-tingent is not to be left behind. Derek Reeves comes up with "white paper / in a glass case / our story". Patricia Prime does it nicely with "freed from a power line / the red tail of a kite / run over by a car". I liked Jon Rawlinson's effort: "The small of her / back and / the curve in her / neck. / All else / waits". Clever, quirky, the results of penetrating curiosity, all of these little works succeed. Very good editing here.

JAAM 17, literary magazine, 26 Grant Road, Thorndon, Wellington. Edited by Mark Pirie.
This issue turns out at a massive 300 pages and is good reading at that, as always. There appears to have been some good editing here. I liked John O'Connor's work, which seems to be getting better by the year. O'Connor is not above political poems as well as the historic pieces, haiku, haibun, lyric pieces etc. He can turn his hand to anything. It is good to see JAAM turning to longer pieces, so often overlooked by many magazine editors. David Howard weighs in with a long piece entitled "Heroin" (10 pages) and all of it good. Bodo Mahnkoph (also in this issue of SOR) writes really well. The stories are a good read - especially Hayden Barr's "Work". And the poetry of the late Simon Williamson shows just why he will be seriously missed. Some good interview and essay work by Mark Pirie plus the good and enlightening list of book reviews shows just why this journal has to be regarded as top rating, in New Zealand.

STOP PRESS!
Just Released: STORYTELLER by Simon Williamson. HeadworX Press, 26 Grant Road, Thorndon, Wellington $29.95. 316 pages.
Simon Williamson was a young Wellington poet who began writing and performing in 1988 but died in 1999, tragically. The scope of Williamson's poetry was wide - life, death, history, people. He also produced paintings and carvings and sang in folk bands. Aparina Taylor provides an introduction and the editing was ably performed by Mark Pirie in association with Williamson's friend, Nick Laing. Williamson was frequently published in Jaam and Takahe, and his last work was published in Southern Ocean Review. Mark Pirie writes an informative and sensitive preface. There are hundreds of poems here, filling the generous 316 pages. It is true to say that Simon Williamson was dedicated to the art of poetry, with just about all forms represented here. A fuller review will follow in the next issue of Southern Ocean Review. Aparina Taylor quotes from his "Praise from a piece of Driftwood" "let the carver find my shape / … / I have grown into you/ like a small fern / at the foot of the Kauri". Simon Williamson will be sorely missed but this book will long be remembered.

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