The Laid-out body – Alistair Campbell

The Laid-out body – Alistair Campbell

Now grace, strength and pride
Have flown like the hawk;
The mind like the spring tide,

Beautiful and calm; the talk;
The brilliance of eye and hand;
The feet that no longer walk.

All is new, and all strange –
Terrible as a dusty gorge
Where a great river sang.


Daisy Pinks – Alistair Campbell

O catch Miss Daisy Pinks
Undressing behind her hair;
She slides open like a drawer
Oiled miraculously by a stare.

O the long cool limbs,
The ecstatic shot of hair,
And untroubled eyes
With their thousand mile stare.

Her eyes are round as marigolds,
Her navel drips with honey,
Her pulse is even, and her laugh
Crackles like paper money.




O'Sullivan, V. (Ed.). (1979). An anthology of twentieth century New Zealand poetry. Wellington: Oxford University Press.