Port Manifold
SKU:
NZ$25.00
NZ$25.00
per item
A trilogy of chapbooks - Rock and Word (48 pp), Harbour and Port (36 pp), and Black Phoenix (44 pp) within combined cover. Each consists of several long poems about the New Zealand port town of Port Chalmers and its environs.
"Beautifully produced in a box and inside printed in three chapbooks: ‘Rock and Word’, ‘Harbour and Port’ and ‘Black Phoenix’, Port Manifold is a triumph of poetry with comprehensive references and links to our local past. Beautifully descriptive and with layer upon layer of historical content, the chapters loop around themselves at times which I liked, coming back to a person, or event, and in doing so cementing that fact, like in a song. It brings to my mind sea shanties; introducing new information in the verses and returning to the heart of the song in the chorus.I grew up in Deborah Bay (my family are named in the book) and many other people and some of the histories were already known to me. Successful and failed enterprises, connections, liaisons, births, deaths, marriages, tragedies; so much historical information is included here. I found this to be a wonderfully refreshing and fascinating charting of place, woven into verse for good measure. Highly recommended."
Reviewed by Debbie Lancaster Gordon for NB (Dunedin Public Library)
Click here to order direct from Rob Allan.
"Beautifully produced in a box and inside printed in three chapbooks: ‘Rock and Word’, ‘Harbour and Port’ and ‘Black Phoenix’, Port Manifold is a triumph of poetry with comprehensive references and links to our local past. Beautifully descriptive and with layer upon layer of historical content, the chapters loop around themselves at times which I liked, coming back to a person, or event, and in doing so cementing that fact, like in a song. It brings to my mind sea shanties; introducing new information in the verses and returning to the heart of the song in the chorus.I grew up in Deborah Bay (my family are named in the book) and many other people and some of the histories were already known to me. Successful and failed enterprises, connections, liaisons, births, deaths, marriages, tragedies; so much historical information is included here. I found this to be a wonderfully refreshing and fascinating charting of place, woven into verse for good measure. Highly recommended."
Reviewed by Debbie Lancaster Gordon for NB (Dunedin Public Library)
Click here to order direct from Rob Allan.