Find a Christchurch based poet.
what is their name?
Allen Curnow
where are they from?
he is from Kaiapoi near Christchurch
how long have they been writing poetry?
1950-1976
What kind of topics do they write about?
He writes about childhood and life
Add a picture of the poet
Find two poems by this poet.
A Facing Page - Poem by Allen Curnow
Behind the eyelids the giant in the sky
is probably sightless, but that can't be known.
Cruciform from full-stretched arms his black robe drops
the whole way to the city. His fingers point
down at our rooftops. We don't know about him.
He knows all about us. By the fire the child's
nightgown is warmed for bed. It's a book entitled
Under the Sunset by Brain Stoker M.A.
my mother's copy in green cloth board 8vo
has nearly lost the spine but a few threads hold,
her childhood and mine. Tucked and kissed for the dark,
I shut my eyes too tight on a picture-book
for waking to loosen. Locked on to where people
believe in themselves, engraved fingers point down.
To A Friend - Poem by Allen Curnow
Old friend, dear friend, some day
when I have had my say, and the world its way,
when all that is left is the gathering in of ends,
and for gathering of friends,
on some autumn evening when the mullet leap
in a sea of silver-grey,
then, O then I will come again
and stay for as long as I may,
stay till the time for sleep;
gaze at the rock that died before me,
the sea that lives for ever;
of air and sunlight, frost and wave and cloud,
and all the remembered agony and joy
fashion my shroud.
Under each poem write what you like about each one.
I like it because he is writing it about his life and expressing his feelings and what he felt throughout his childhood.
The way he wrote his poems was creative and how he used his words well for the readers to understand.
