From Manoa to a Ponsonby Garden

By Wendt, Professor Emeritus Albert

Ultimately a book about ageing and the consideration of death, this collection moves from the warm valley winds of Hawai&#39;i to the seasons of a garden in Auckland. In Hawai&#39;i Wendt watches the changing shadows of the Ko&#39;olau mountains from his verandah; considers the nature of mauli, the seat of life; walks protected in his partner&#39;s perfumed slipstream to work; and writes to fellow poet Hone Tuwhare from the excesses of Las Vegas. In the second half of the book we move to the garden in Ponsonby in 40 vivid &#39;garden&#39; poems that are the triumph of the collection. Here joints need replacing, poets grow older, tsunami destroy and friends slip away, but a spirit of renewal and humour pervades - along with prowling cats, baking muffins, flashing kingfishers and visiting mokopuna. And scattered among the garden poems will be some of Wendt&#39;s inky, drawn poems - the best are about the Samoan tsunami or galu afi. From Manoa to a Ponsonby Garden is an extraordinary, alert and confident book by one of our most celebrated writers.

Ultimately a book about ageing and the consideration of death, this collection moves from the warm valley winds of Hawai'i to the seasons of a garden in Auckland. In Hawai'i Wendt watches the changing shadows of the Ko'olau mountains from his verandah; considers the nature of

By Wendt, Professor Emeritus Albert

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