New Zealand

Today is New Zealand's Waitangi Day (which is sometimes called New Zealand Day): it celebrates the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, the founding document of New Zealand.

As an Australian, New Zealand is often on my mind: we're well known for claiming New Zealanders as Australians when they've had success - Russell Crowe, for example. (A good friend of mine from New Zealand, however, says "you can have him.") Crowded House, too - but hey, they were Melbourne-based for a while, and had a Melbourne drummer. The one that always amuses me the most is that after Jane Campion made "The Piano" (about New Zealand, by a New Zealander!) we started talking about her as an Australian filmmaker.

The same friend that told me Australia can keep Russell Crowe also introduced me to the poetry of Bill Manhire, who is one of the best and best-known contemporary New Zealand poets. When I was looking around for a poem to include here, I found on the University of Otago's site the oration given by Professor Alan Musgrave when an honorary Doctoral Degree was conferred on the poet. That's also where I found this poem.


Milky Way Bar

I live at the edge of the universe,
like everybody else. Sometimes I think
congratulations are in order:
I look out at the stars
And my eye merely blinks a little,
my voice settles for a sigh.

But my whole pleasure is the inconspicuous;
I love the unimportant thing.
I go down to the Twilight Arcade
and watch the Martian invaders,
already appalled by our language,
pointing at what they want.

Bill Manhire