Aotea Square

Enter a living canvas of words, movement, and sound.

A vibrant, multi-sensory spoken word experience celebrating Tāmaki Makaurau’s diverse poetry communities, hosted by MC Renee Liang – playwright, essayist, and poet.

Discover an eclectic mix of styles and voices: slam, Pasifika, te reo Māori, migrant perspectives, experimental works, and youth poets.

Unleash your own creativity! Prompting poets to create spontaneous poems in real time and poetry karaoke covering classic works.

Explore a kaleidoscope of activities: wander through chalk poetry, browse a market of books and zines, create blackout poetry on the Poet-tree, and craft visual poems with collage stickers and words..

Te Tiriti and the Silvertop

As a child I hated
the silvertop milk
and its cream plugging
the shaft of the bottle.
The milk below
was watery.
Now I go out
of my way
to find
the bottles
which expire
on Feb 6th.

Robert Sullivan

Robert Sullivan is Aotearoa New Zealand’s 14^th Poet Laureate. He belongs to Ngāpuhi (Ngāti Manu, Ngāti Hau / Ngāti Kaharau) and Kāi Tahu (Kāti Huirapa ki Puketeraki) iwi and is also of Irish descent. He has won many literary awards. His most recent books are Hopurangi / Songcatcher (AUP) which was shortlisted for the Mary and Peter Biggs Award at the 2025 Ockham Book Awards, Koe: An Aotearoa Ecopoetry Anthology coedited with Janet Newman (Otago University Press 2024) and a collection of essays coedited with Anna Jackson and Dougal McNeill, Te Whāriki: Reading Ten New Poets from Aotearoa (AUP 2025). Robert is Associate Professor in Creative Writing at Massey University. He lives in Ōamaru.

To launch Poetry Shelf 2026, our current Poet Laureate Robert Sullivan has written a sequence called “Tidbits of Te Tiriti”.  He wrote these Te Tiriti Tidbits in the voice of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. There will be one published each day for this Waitangi Day weekend, and then a fifth one on Feb 17th, which is the day his Ngāti Manu tūpuna signed Te Tiriti.

Double Book Launch: Bill Manhire and Jenny Bornholdt

11 February, 6pm, Unity Books Wellington
A joint launch of Lyrical Ballads by Bill Manhire and What to Wear by Jenny Bornholdt will be held at Unity Books Wellington. Two extraordinary poetry collections from two of Aotearoa’s most beloved former poet laureates, launched by Robyn Marsack – not to be missed! Free entry, all welcome. Please note: this is a changed date from the one advertised in our December newsletter!

Te Tiriti Says Mōrena

I felt cheesed off by the oral hearings
about me. I felt a little deracinated
to borrow a French word from Rimbaud
who wrote Un saison en enfer—deracinated
to see my innards unravelled, to stamp
on my first second and third clauses
and even the spoken spiritual one.
So I bought myself the lovely drip coffee maker
with the timer in the Briscoes sale
to wake with a cuppa in the morning.

Robert Sullivan

Robert Sullivan is Aotearoa New Zealand’s 14^th Poet Laureate. He belongs to Ngāpuhi (Ngāti Manu, Ngāti Hau / Ngāti Kaharau) and Kāi Tahu (Kāti Huirapa ki Puketeraki) iwi and is also of Irish descent. He has won many literary awards. His most recent books are Hopurangi / Songcatcher (AUP) which was shortlisted for the Mary and Peter Biggs Award at the 2025 Ockham Book Awards, Koe: An Aotearoa Ecopoetry Anthology coedited with Janet Newman (Otago University Press 2024) and a collection of essays coedited with Anna Jackson and Dougal McNeill, Te Whāriki: Reading Ten New Poets from Aotearoa (AUP 2025). Robert is Associate Professor in Creative Writing at Massey University. He lives in Ōamaru.

To launch Poetry Shelf 2026, our current Poet Laureate Robert Sullivan has written a sequence called “Tidbits of Te Tiriti”.  He wrote these Te Tiriti Tidbits in the voice of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. There will be one published each day for this Waitangi Day weekend, and then a fifth one on Feb 13th, which is the day his Ngāti Manu tūpuna signed Te Tiriti.

Te Henga

The slump of cliff, a fierce drop into the estuary
slumbering deadstill the muddy brown

A group of gulls gawping and squawking
wings outstretched in now silent flight
a strangely muted ocean, its soundtrack purring

It’s the smell of salted seaweed
it’s the beat of andagio sea
it’s a trail of weathered footprints

A woman crouches to photograph the gulls
a solitary surfer gazes at the waves
the stranded log sits like a beached whale amid storm debris

You shut your eyes to the rain-drenched memory
eyes settle upon the present tense
even the muffled voice of the dog walker
is in harmony with the thrum of the scrolling waves

Paula Green

Haere mai. Welcome to Poetry Shelf 2026.

In 2026 Poetry Shelf will celebrate poetry in Aotearoa, old and new, with features, reviews, themes, audio, interviews, special seasons, and poetry news.

Monday Poem will be back. Playing Favourites will be back (poems and books we love). A much loved feature, Cafe Readings, will be back. I will review new books, but I am also reviewing a few books from 2025 that I missed because my energy jar was precariously low.

In the next weeks some of the poets on The Ockham NZ Book Award for Poetry long list will do cafe readings. I am also posting a special feature to celebrate the poetry of Iain Sharp.

Do send me poetry news to post, especially events.
Do send me books to review (I cannot promise to review every book sent).

To launch Poetry Shelf 2026, our current Poet Laureate Robert Sullivan has written a sequence called “Tidbits of Te Tiriti”.  He wrote these Te Tiriti Tidbits in the voice of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. There will be one published each day for this Waitangi Day weekend, and then a fifth one on Feb 13th, which is the day his Ngāti Manu tūpuna signed Te Tiriti.

When I interview poets I often ask poets to choose a few words that matter as writers. I asked myself that this morning, as a writer yes, but more importantly as the creator of this site. I went into a field of glorious possibilities. How I want Poetry Shelf to connect, celebrate, advocate poetry that challenges, delights, intrigues, soothes, inspires, that advances myriad connections. I want Poetry Shelf to offer both balm and protest banners in these calamitous times. I am sitting here thinking we often don’t know the inner worlds, the struggles and the illuminations, of the person writing and performing next to us. I am thinking this as I pull together a feature to celebrate Iain’s poetry. I want to listen. I want to learn. I want to love. My word is love.