Bio:
Poet and novelist; born Rarotonga, 25 June 1925; son of John Archibald Campbell and Teu (née Bosini) of Tongareva; married (1) Fleur Adcock; 2 sons (diss. 1957) (2) Meg Andersen, 1958, 1 son, 2 daughters. Lives at Pukerua Bay in a house looking out towards Kapiti Island, with his wife, Meg, who is also a poet, and five springer spaniel dogs (including the ghost of KooShe).
Education : Otago Boys' High School; Victoria University College, B.A., 1953; Wellington Teachers' College, 1952 - 53 Teacher Newtown School, 1954; Editor, School Journal, 1955 - 1972 : Senior Editor, N.Z. Council for Educational Research, 1972 -- 87.
Awards & Honours: Guest writer, Adelaide Festival of the Arts, 1978; N.Z. Book Award for Poetry, 1982 ; Arts Council Scholarship in Letters, 1990; Writer's Fellow, Victoria University of Wellington, 1992; Pacific Islands Artist Award, l998; Hon. D.Litt.; Victoria University, 1999.
Biblio:
Poetry Books:
, 1950
Sanctuary of Spirits, 1963
Kapiti : Selected Poems, 1972
The Dark Lord of Savaiki, 1980
Soul Traps, 1985
Stone Rain: The Polynesian Strain, 1992
Gallipoli and Other Poems, 1999
Maori Battalion, 1999
Fiction:
, 1989
Sidewinder, 1991
Fantasy with Witches, 1998
Memoir:
, 1984.
Poets in Our Youth, 1992.
Recording:
Gallipoli Penninsula
lo-fi (rm : 150KB, streaming)
hi-fi (mp3 : 850KB )
Gallipoli Peninsula
It was magical when flowers
appeared on the upper reaches –
not that we saw much of the upper reaches.
But when we did,
we were reminded of home
when spring clothed the hills with flowers.
The dead lying among them
seemed to be asleep.
I can never forget the early mornings,
before the killings started up,
when the sea was like a mirror
under little wisps of cloud
breathing on its surface, so dazzling
it hurt the eye.
and the ships, so many of them,
they darkened the sea.
But the evenings too were magical,
with such hues in the sky
over Macedonia,
so many colours, gold bars,
green, red, and yellow.
We noticed these things,
when the firing stopped and we had respite.
It was good to feel,
during such moments,
that we were human beings once more,
delighting in little things,
in just being human.
[Gallipoli and Other Poems (Wai-te-ata Press, 1999)]
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