A Good Handful: Great New Zealand Poems About Sex  Ed. Stu Bagby (Auckland University Press, 2008) RRP $27.99. ISBN 978 1 86940 403 1

Keith Nunes

 At first glance this anthology could give the book store peruser the wrong message. One thing this collection is not is a tawdry little romp through bare breasts and penises being exposed in dark, seedy rooms. This 120-page book is actually a superb gathering of quality poets writing about the subtleties and nuances of the broader sense of sex.

            Noble and upright poet Stu Bagby has done a fine job of pulling together such excellent poems that say as much about the love and tenderness and quirkiness of sex than about the actual act of sexual intercourse, although there are a few quite candid and revealing works that can raise a smile. The list of poets reads like a who's who of Kiwi writing with the likes of Fleur Adcock, James K Baxter, Tony Beyer, Peter Bland, Jenny Bornholdt, recent award-winner Janet Charman, Sam Hunt, Robin Hyde, Fiona Kidman, C.K. Stead, Hone Tuwhare, Louis Johnson, Rachel McAlpine, Vincent O'Sullivan, Harry Ricketts, Elizabeth Smither, Ian Wedde and Denis Welch and so on. A fantastic line-up of poets.

            Some poems you may recognize instantly including Adcock's wry piece ‘Against Coupling' or Michael Jackson's wonderful ‘Don't I Know You?' Most though have been selected by Bagby for their attitude and bearing and some come from within longer pieces.

            Among my favourites in the list of more than 60 poets are Brian Turner's down-to-earth and humorous ‘A Perfect Man', which bluntly rejects the notion that men should be "culturally homosexual but genetically straight"; Alistair Paterson's pithy ‘Jennie Roache Love All the Boys in the World'; and Anne French's daring ‘Thinking of You'.

            There's barely a flop among the dozens of delightful verses. A book like this can you keep coming back year after year to re-read favourites and see if what you didn't like yesterday appeals today.

            It's an all-round triumph and a timely boost for New Zealand poetry. Well done AUP for having the courage to produce such an audacious book.

 

NZPS Home