Murray Edmond, poet, playwright, theatre director, editor and critic, was born in Hamilton, New Zealand, in 1949. He lives in Auckland, having lived and worked throughout New Zealand and in Europe.
Since the 1970s Murray has been active, both in New Zealand and overseas, in alternative theatre groups including Living Theatre, Beggars Bag Theatre, Theatre Action and the Town and Country Players. He has had an equally long involvement with writing and was a founder member of the influential magazine Freed.
He was the writer in residence at the University of Canterbury in 1983, after which he moved to Auckland to work with Mercury Theatre. Since 1985 he has taught the University of Auckland’s Post-graduate Diploma in Drama.
Murray has written seven books of poetry, including Laminations (2000), From the Word Go (1992) and The Switch (1994) and a musical – A New South Pacific, edited two anthologies, and completed a doctoral dissertation on New Zealand theatre history, Old Comrades of the Future. He appears on Seeing Voices (AUP, November 1999), New Zealand’s first poetry anthology on CD.
Murray’s latest projects have included editing, with Alan Brunton and Michele Leggott, Big Smoke: New Zealand Poems 1960–1975. This revealing look at New Zealand poetry in the sixties and seventies – the era of protest and revolution, beads and flowers, love not war – was launched to critical acclaim on Montana New Zealand National Poetry Day, 21 July 2000.
From A Piece of Work
22
in 33
like a flea in a fit
a box of birds
like something out of the ark
she straightened her hair as she stood
the Boat of a Million Years
under attack by German raiders
23
such dalliance at the door
would try the patience of Job
which after all is said and eaten was only
writ on papyrus reeds
the same stuff they used
to build the boat to carry the dead
she fanned her burning cheeks
24
like the bull at the gate
of the china shop
she knew she looked like one
of the Pale People
who had taken an overdose
of the famous Pink Pills for Pale People
25
she smoothed her uniform
mirrorless maiden at the gate of images
with a twist slung
the red cape round her shoulders
should she knock
only two women
sat on juries in the next 16 years
26
you look nice dear
she said that
like it was the last thing she said
you you you you
the sound she made
Mercer died just before the rescuers arrived
names ache
on mother’s maiden knee
27
on the last of the last lasty-last
as if there’s no tomorrow
getting a woman into Parliament was
like getting a camel through the eye of a needle
the last thing we need
pipe-smoking women
moko on their chins sitting on the footpath from the train window
28
those born out of wedlock were excluded
she flopped in the chair
but nobody else was in a hurry
when we wanted to say good-bye
we said
hooray
my rod and staff to comfort me
A Piece of Work (Honolulu: Tinfish, 2002).
- Catch (nzepc)
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(rm : 195KB, streaming)
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(mp3 : 748KB)
- Gone Dogs
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- Ballad of the eighth day of the week
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- Elegy for Mama
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- Venice Unrevisited
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- The Ballad of the Penguin
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- The Cold War
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- Ballad of Child Rearing
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- Saint Cebria
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- Inland
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- Sleeping Rabbit
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- Landrynka
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- Jungle
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- Voyager
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- Starfish Streets (from Laminations) (nzepc)
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© Murray Edmond
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