SOURCE: Johnston, Andrew. “Entertaining Possibilities: Six Contemporary New Zealand Poets.” Meanjin 51, no. 3 (spring 1992): 641-52.

In the following essay, Johnston surveys the work of several New Zealand poets, including Allen Curnow, Bill Manhire, Gregory O'Brien, and Michele Leggott.

There is no mainstream in New Zealand poetry. Under scrutiny, the critical categories proposed from time to time break down into ever smaller categories, whose number almost corresponds with the number of poets. Rather than offer a guided tour of a hastily erected artificial structure called ‘New Zealand poetry’, I have found it more useful to respond to the writing itself by describing some ways of reading it. I would like to look at the work of six authors who are writing interesting poetry: five who published books in 1991, and Allen Curnow.

Curnow has been a presence to be reckoned with in any discussion of contemporary New Zealand poetry for more...