AN OLD PHOTOGRAPH
YSELF in 1951 Sitting on a mountain cart With a black book in my hand High boots laced a poet’s heart Beats proudly on and on and on Clouds like flags above the crest Of lion peaks a gorge in spate And the round world turning under One man’s dome it was hell gate The gap the river made they said And if that stocky larrikin On whom my eyes look backward now Selt-pitying had known the smallest Part of what would come and how The dogs would eat his dearest fancy Then by god he would have sat Bolt upright and clean forgotten The sweet poem in his head Called down curses on the rotten Hovel ratrace labyrinth In which his blinded heart would go Or knelt upon the stones and. prayed But each hour an island is And the itnmaculate hand that made Dogs and us allows a place For kisses on a darkened stair For poems in a thin black book And all the grave nonsensical Imaginings that bait the hook That drags us up to choke in air.
James K.
Baxter
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19591030.2.20
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 41, Issue 1053, 30 October 1959, Page 14
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188AN OLD PHOTOGRAPH New Zealand Listener, Volume 41, Issue 1053, 30 October 1959, Page 14
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
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