Poetry Shelf noticeboard: Airini Beautrais and Helen Lehndorf talk humour and poetry

Need some extra salt on your lunch? In October, Airini Beautrais and Helen Lehndorf are visiting Wellington to talk humour in poetry and read a few poems from their recent collections ‘Salt Q…

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Poetry Shelf Monday Poem: ‘In the mangroves’ by Kiri Piahana Wong

In the mangroves Standing amongst the mangroves,I notice how fiercely they anchorthemselves in the mud, how theyhave chosen to make this sticky,impenetrable placetheir home. I admire that. The idea…

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Poetry Box September challenge: Some favourite sky poems

Rain Hugs Golden honey sun warms me.Drooling rain hugs me.The crackling stars glisten.The cloudy grey moonis swimming to the other side. Maggie M age 11, Te Parito Kōwhai Russley School The sky oft…

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Poetry Shelf’s Poet Laureate Postcards: ‘Early Class’ by Robert Sullivan

Early Class In 1978 in the old Onehunga Primary school hallwe met with a group of teachers and parentsto show off the new technology—a Casio calculatorwhich I demonstrated with a classmate,and enco…

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Poetry Shelf celebrates Te Wiki o te Reo Māori -Māori Language Week: ‘View from a Mountain’ by Ben Brown

View From A Mountain Replica waka houruacruising up the Whakaraupo ki te !angaby the Naval Point seems indifferentto the semi laden bulk carrieron its wayto Somewhere Elsewith the rest of its ammon…

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Tauranga Hospital Emergency Department staff declare 'state of emergency'

Emergency Department staff at Tauranga Hospital have declared "a state of emergency", warning of the risks of an ED which they say is often running at 150-200 percent of its capacity, without the staf...

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Poetry Shelf celebrates Mary McCallum’s Tackling the Hens: a conversation and a reading

Tackling the Hens, Mary McCallumThe Cuba Press, 2026 Mary McCallum’s latest poetry collection, Tackling the Hens (2025), is a poetic engagement, both intimate and intricate, with the world cl…

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Poetry Box celebrates Cass and the Beast by Claire Mabey and Jill Calder

Cass and the Beast Claire Mabey and Jill CalderGecko Press, 2026 Gecko Press page Like poems, children’s picture books can be and do so many things. Claire Mabey’s debut picture book, Cass and the …

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Poetry Shelf Speaking Out: ‘tomorrow we are dead’ by Jeffrey Paparoa Holman

tomorrow we are dead     – for Ukraine, 2026 today not bornalways in the momentof epiphany he came for usmad dog that he ison a chain of saliva who knew his bloodwould run this coldinventing …

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Poetry Shelf Noticeboard: Launches for Chris Tse’s Dance-Floor Romance

RSVP and details here plus Chris at Verb Readers and Writers Festival

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Poetry Box September challenge: Sky Poems

I love writing sky poems. And I love it when the sky pops into a poem I am writing about something altogether different. For September I challenge you to write a sky poem. The sky might be the main…

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Poetry Box August poem challenge inspired by the book ‘He Aha Te Mea Nui? What Matters Most?’ – some favourite poems

For August I challenged you to write a poem that responds to the question the book asks: He Aha Te Mea Nui? What Matters Most? The Children’s Commissioner asked children across the motu this …

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Poetry Shelf Monday Poem: Birthday card by Kay McKenzie Cooke

Birthday card My mokopuna made me a birthday card written in cloud-whitepen on bright blue card, the words so faint I need to read themup close in order to take in each word and letter.I have stuck…

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Poetry Shelf Noticeboard: Newsroom celebrates Airini Beautrais as does Poetry Shelf

Newsroom published Airini Beautrais’s memorable poem, ‘Cancer Moon: Poet Life’ from Salt Quilt (Te Herenga Waka University Press, 2026). The epic memoir poem has got so much love …

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Poetry Shelf noticeboard: Michele Elvy Motion Sickness book launch

“This collection began with the watery space where I grew up and extends to the space that holds us all: the ocean. The poems built themselves around family who are always with me, even if go…

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Poetry Shelf Noticeboard: 3 poets waxing lyrical

Airini Beautrais, Mikaela Nyman and Helen Llendorf are coming to Poppies Bookshop, New Plymouth in two weeks to read from their recent poetry collections and talk all things poetry and the poet&#82…

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Poetry Shelf noticeboard: Letters Out Loud – The Poetry Powerhouse – Sonic Tonic

Visit the post for more.

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Poetry Shelf pays tribute: Riemke Ensing (1939 – 2026)

let us hold Riemke to our hearts, as we stand, hand in hand breathing in the sweet salty air at Muriwai Beach, wherever we might be Waitakere River Valleyfor Derek March Lost, you say, the songs of…

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Poetry Shelf celebrates ‘In a space between’, a tribute book for Peter Ireland

The National Library assumed responsibility for the New Zealand Poet Laureate Award in 2007. For the ten years prior, this had had been the personal project and passion of John Buck of Te Mata Esta…

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Poetry Shelf noticeboard: 3 poets Waxing Lyrical

wow!

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Poetry Shelf Breathing Room: by Amy Brown

Wild Bluebellfor Anne Brown For your birthday I bought a cologne I’d never smelt but liked the sound of, a collection of Mary Oliver’s and a card with a woodcut print of a duck with a bow…

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Poetry Shelf Monday Poem: What can we do about Palestine? by Lynn Jenner

What can we do about Palestine? I stand in front of you nowa metaphorical stick in my handI bang it three times on the wooden floorThree is the sound of an urgent alarm Genocide speaks in a passive…

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Poetry Shelf best ever celebration of NZ Poetry Day – Fiona Farrell responds to Tūmanako: Words of Hope event

If you missed reading and listening to the wonderful Poetry Day feature .posted here on Friday . . here you go A crowd in Ōtepoti Dunedin’s Athenaeum library, the country’s oldest continuously oper…

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Poetry Shelf celebrates NZ Poetry Day with a Panel of Poets, Words of Hope and Lambing Season

Love Affair(a given poem from Katherine Mansfieldwith thanks to Helen McNeish) You wrote the tablewas laid for twobut nobody cameso you dined oppositea white napkin. It’s called giving yourse…

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Poetry Shelf noticeboard: Faces & Flowers: Dinah Hawken and Patricia France exhibition

The Eastern Southland Gallery warmly invites you to a Floor Talk, Exhibition Opening and Poetry Reading, on Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th September, to celebrate the e…

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Poetry Shelf review, reading and conversation: Jack Ross

Tesseract, Jack Ross, illustrated by Scarlet Robinson-Kean paper table, 2026 “We’re only conscious for a small / part of the time allotted to us: there’ll never be any more of it,…

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Poetry Shelf Noticeboard: Poetry Day at Time Out Bookstore

Join us for an evening of great poetry and fun people for our 12th straight year running All Tomorrow’s Poets at Time Out Bookstore. It’s a relaxed event featuring readings from five po…

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