Departures, Dunstan Ward, Cold Hub Press, 2024

Listening with Nicola

‘When I heard the waves dragging the pebbles
I was reminded of my dear uncle Dunstan,
showing me how it sounds if you cup your ears.’

And so I, too, relive that moment in Kent,
four decades ago, during your first return trip
to the country that our pioneer families left.

My laptop recaptures, amplified through headphones,
the harsher sound of massive Tasman breakers
cascading down these grey-black stones on the Coast,

your unlikely new home the farther side of the Alps.
Listening now in Paris, I think of you,
listening there, and thinking of us together.

Firstlings

The first crocus burning under the oak trees,
the first snowdrops, hidden amid the dead leaves;
the first pale lilac, its childhood fragrance,
the first wild violet’s fugitive scent;
the first sunlit steps to the morning garden,
the first fingers dipped in the ocean’s font.

The first strawberries, perfumed, waterish,
the first firm red cherries, a secret wish;
the first fat asparagus, white and pricey,
the first chestnuts roasted on chillier streets;
the first oysters shucked to briny succulence,
the first glass of glowing new wine for a toast.

The first swallow’s joyous fioriture,
the first cuckoo’s echo lost in the hills;
the first bat near nightfall above the river,
the first coruscating frost on crisp grass;
the first ice stilling the weir, the millrace,
the first flakes of snow, re-enchanting the world.

Dunstan Ward

The readings

‘A Message’

‘The Garden at Night’

Having lived in Paris for over fifty years, I regard myself as a New Zealand Parisian. Born in Dunedin in 1942, I was brought up on a farm in Otago, and educated at Catholic schools in Timaru and at the University of Canterbury. After three years teaching at the University of Waikato, I left in 1971 for London, and then in 1973 settled in Paris, retiring as Professor of English at the University of London Institute. With Beryl Graves, the poet’s widow, I edited the Complete Poems of Robert Graves (Carcanet, 1995–99; Penguin Classics, 2003). I have published three poetry collections: Beyond Puketapu (Steele Roberts, 2015), and At This Distance and Departures (both Cold Hub Press, 2019 and 2024).

Cold Hub Press page