From Shakespeare's sonnets to Japanese Haikus, we all know that poetry is the literature of love. But do the poets have lustier moments? Do they ever think about sex? In this collection, New Zealand's most well loved poets give a great grunt in the affirmative. They tackle sex from every angle. Sex can be funny (C K Stead's "tree in my trousers") or disturbing (Rachel McAlpine's "scary poem about my breasts"). It can be ordinary ("The sex life of the sheep is at best perfunctory," Anne French explains) or extraordinary ("you are not what you were before we knew each other," writes Charles Brasch). It can by lusty (Vincent O'Sullivan's "panty pirate") or tender (Anne Kennedy's "whole Autumn boiled down to a single bite"). It can be metaphorical (Baxter's "your mouth was the sun") or practical ("should a courier hand be sent down under" asks Louis Johnson). By the end of the collection, some poets have had enough of all this nonsense. "Altogether we've come to the conclusion that sex is a drag. Just give us a fag" writes Fleur Adcock. But for many of New Zealand's poets-and many readers-sex remains a great subject for literature and for life. This collection shows why.
Coupling / Fleur Adcock -- Four and seven / Emma Neale -- from The Tangowahine gang / Stu Bagby -- Burning the liberty bodice / Rachel McAlpine -- from The beaches / Robin Hyde -- Jennie Roach loves all the boys in the world / Alistair Paterson -- from The poets / Iain Sharp -- The page three girl / Glenn Colquhoun -- Where's Lisa? / Graham Lindsay. Base details / Tony Beyer. from Eight ways of getting it on / Louis Johnson -- Seven hectic takes / Geoff Cochrane -- The other woman's car / Siobhan Harvey -- Virginity / Nina Kirifi-Alai -- Aubade / Jack Ross -- from The time of the giants / Anne Kennedy -- Haiku / Hone Tuwhare -- Six thinkers / Chris Price -- Taking it as it comes / Brian Turner -- Girlfriends ; 20 years later / Rhona Vickoce -- Of marrying (1) ; Of marrying (2) / Kendrick Smithyman -- Man watching his wife in a play / Elizabeth Smither -- Maintaining the family unit / James Brown -- Charm / David Howard -- Family planning / James Brown --^
Towards a climax / Martyn Sanderson -- Some man / Roma Potiki -- On becoming old women / Elizabeth Nannestad -- Morning beads / Bernard Brown -- Peacocks / Ruth Dallas -- The perfect man / Brian Turner -- Au naturel / Louis Johnson -- Wedding party and after / Sam Hunt -- His knowing / Cliff Fell -- Don't I know you? / Michael Jackson -- Pa'u-stina / Tusiata Avia -- Horace's girlfriends / Iain Lonie -- from New Zealanders at home ; Thinking of you / Anne French -- If you're my friend for life / Jan Kemp -- This is what's funny / John Dolan -- Dear Sir / Kate Camp -- Life a blind man / Cliff Fell -- Then / Harry Ricketts -- Inconspicuously sensual / Hone Tuwhare -- At Pakiri Beach / David Mitchell -- Song, for two players / Michael Harlow -- The artist's models reply / Emma Neale -- from No new thing / R.A.K. Mason -- A passion for travel / Allen Curnow -- The instant of a smile / Phil Kawana -- Directions / Lauris Edmond -- Hokianga love song / Riemke Ensing --^
from The Clodian songbook (second series) / C.K. Stead -- Signals / Charles Brasch -- Stray / Gregory O'Brien -- April 1975 / Nuru Jaya -- Sinking it / Vincent O'Sullivan -- Cinema / Tony Beyer -- Prelude / Fleur Adcock -- Erring / Kate Camp -- Hearing Aunt M. out / Vincent O'Sullivan -- The lions / Elizabeth Smither -- To a woman at a party ; I'm an odd fish / Denis Glover -- Drinking horn / Alistair Te Ariki Campbell -- from The Clodian songbook / C.K. Stead -- Muscle and bone of song / Hone Tuwhare -- Shopping with Brigitte Bardot / Peter Bland -- Put off constricting day / Mary Stanley -- A circus act / Kevin Ireland -- Against coupling ; Smokers for celibacy / Fleur Adcock -- Check-up / Vincent O'Sullivan -- A frightened poem about my breasts / Rachel McAlpine -- Doing it badly / Fiona Kidman -- Two deaths in one night / Janet Charman -- On the death of her body / James K. Baxter -- To beauty / Ian Wedde -- A night full of nothing / Keith Sinclair -- A benison / Denis Welch --^
Love suite love / Bernard Brown -- Cast in order of appearance / Jenny Bornholdt -- from Waiata Aroha / Witi Ihimaera -- Infinite / Stu Bagby -- from Counting the seeds / John Dickson -- Let time be still / James K. Baxter.