Poetry Shelf Towns and Cities:

Posted: Monday Jun 19, 2023

Ōtepoti Dunedin

Here too the city will help, hill tree and tower
by sunlight or by starlight assembled into a setting
for something to take place in, a place to go on from.

Iain Lonie
from 'The Entrance to Purgatory' from The Entrance to Purgatory (McIndoe, 1986)

The first stop on my poetry road trip was the Kāpiti Coast and Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. Second stop is Ōtepoti Dunedin. A fitting place to linger as I have spent extended sojourns in poems with Dunedin connections. I am thinking of all the poets who have lived in Dunedin at different points, poets who have captivated readers with their poetic verve across decades: from Ruth Dallas and Janet Frame through to Cilla McQueen and Vincent O'Sullivan, David Eggleton and Emma Neale. Many of these poets have lived and written elsewhere but have also been a vital part of the city's writing pulse, this beloved City of Literature. I am thinking too of the explosion of new voices, of younger poets enriching the performance spaces, the poetry collectives, with appearances in the Otago Daily Times, literary journals and their own publications.

I am thinking of Charles Brasch founding Landfall in Dunedin in 1947, and how after time elsewhere, the journal has returned to its home place. It is now published by Otago University Press under the astute editorship of Lynley Edmeades and David Eggleton (reviews). I am thinking of the Robbie Burns Fellowship that supports writers. I am musing on how Otago University Press is led by poet and publisher Sue Wootton, and how OUP bestowed such loving attention on David's recent NZ Poet Laureate collection (my review here). There is the eclectic and lovingly assembled Under Flagstaff: An Anthology of Dunedin Poetry (eds Robin Law and Heather Murray, Otago University Press, 2004). And I thinking of Jenny Powell and Kay McKenzie Cooke's touring duo: J & K Rolling!

When I visit Ōtepoti in person, hang out in the cool cafes, scour the bookshops, visit the galleries, take a trip along the headland to see the albatrosses, stand in the Octagon and breathe in the crisp southern air, I feel alive with a vibrant and vital city. And that is how Dunedin poetry is for me - whether it's a hint of city connections or full immersion. Dunedin poetry is prismatic, it moves and gleams in multiple ways, there is no single southern recipe or voice, there is sustenance and substance.

Such a pleasure hanging out in this splendid city courtesy of poets I have lingered with over time and those I have only just met in print. Grateful thanks to all the contributors. I also toast the much loved poets who are not part of this particular mix! I needed a book! I begin the Dunedin stopover with the much loved voice of Cilla McQueen and conclude with the equally loved Vincent O'Sullivan and Ruth Dallas.

Thank you. Next up I am heading to North Island towns and small cities. 

Read the Poems HERE