Poetry review: Hopurangi—Songcatcher – Poems from the Maramataka

By Robert Sullivan

Auckland University Press (2024)

The poems in Hopurangi—Songcatcher are framed by the cycles of the Maramataka, the Māori lunar calendar. Having rejoined Facebook after a six-year absence, Robert Sullivan wrote and posted a poem a day for nearly three months, poems which are now collected here, in Hopurangi—Songcatcher.

They explore a period of personal growth for Robert, and through these works his journey unfurls in what feels like real time. As he reconnects with the past — (“It was healing at Karitāne / to hear the beautiful words and learn the moves that speak / of our places of home, Hikaroroa, Pahatea, Ka Iwi a Weka”) — the present intervenes. One poem contemplates the power of the emoji when applied to verse, another touches on listening to Taylor Swift’s Midnights in a spa pool.

A layered and immersive collection I know I will return to again and again.

LAURA WILLIAMSON

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Laura Williamson
A writer, songwriter and poet based in Central Otago, Laura Williamson is the editor of 1964: mountain culture / aotearoa. She co-wrote The Blue Moments Project song and spoken word cycle, and her book The Bike and Beyond: Life on Two Wheels in Aotearoa New Zealand is out now as part of the BWB Text series.

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