in the cracks of light, Apirana Taylor
Canterbury University Press, 2024

bud

the poet tree
buds forever

 

Apirana Taylor

 

in the cracks of light is an apt title for Apirana Taylor’s collection of poems, a book that begins with the idea that poetry is born out of light and dark. It is a perfect book to pick up this week, when life itself clings desperately to cracks of light, when words, against all odds, are a way of building light across the globe.

Apirana begins with a wahine’s call on the marae, with the welcoming ‘karanga mai, karanga mai’, and I am hearing that call. I am hearing that call with everyone together.

the people weave the light
from threads of memory
stories stitching weaving
everyone together with laughter tears and kōrero

 

from ‘karanga’

This is a collection of wonder, acknowledgement, aroha, home, descendants. It is a book of protest and it is a book of plantings. It is a book of the land and the people, of listening looking reflecting.

Apirana’s lyrical craft exemplifies the way spareness on the line can open out into a lingering richness. The poems, some short, some longer, become song. A flower that slowly opens as we read. A poetic bloom. An album in the key of hope.

I am musing on how the stories we carry with us over generations shape us, from times of protest and challenge to the time of planting kūmara, fingers in the life-enriching soil. Sharpness and edge, tenderness and wisdom.

Think too of this book as a handbook, a guidebook on writing. The poet is ‘raining poems’. He will write of rivers, mountains, lakes, seas, the land, the poor, ‘for that is the dream’ (‘to write’). He will write of beauty and wonder (‘microscope’), and I am wondering, let’s say wandering, into the realm of miniature detail in the wide expanse of a view.

Pick up Apirana’s sublime collection and like me, you might weep, feel and celebrate the power of words connect, heal and pay attention. This collection, penned in the key of love, is a gift, a taonga.

catch the wind

 

oh poem

raise your sail
catch the
wind

 

Apirana Taylor

Apirana Taylor was awarded the 2024 Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry. He is a poet, playwright, novelist, short story writer, storyteller, actor, painter and musician. His prose and poems have been translated into many languages and are included in many nationally and internationally published anthologies. Api travels to schools, tertiary institutions and prisons throughout New Zealand to read his poetry, tell his stories and take creative writing workshops. He has now published seven collections of poetry, three collections of short stories, two novels and three plays. Api is of Māori and Pākehā descent, with proud affiliation to Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui and Ngāti Ruanui.

Canterbury University Press page