Description
from ‘The bowsprit chronicles’
I gaze where the ship points me. On up-swells
I glimpse clouds; swinging down, I peer
into the keel-split water. I am always proud,
even disdainful: I slight porpoise and albatross
without favour. I am the sailor’s muse, the ship’s courage.
This fact sings in my cedar blood.
About the author
Sue was awarded a New Zealand Society of Authors mentorship in 2003 and shortlisted for the Lillian Ida Smith award. After being published widely in newspapers, journals and anthologies (including Best NZ Poems 2004) her first book of poetry, Hourglass, was published in 2005. Some of her work has been translated into Hungarian, Romanian, Spanish and Vietnamese.
Sue has won numerous poetry and short story prizes (including the 2010 Takahe international poetry competition and the 2015 Caselberg Trust International Poetry Prize), and in 2008 she was the Robert Burns Fellow at Otago University. In 2010 she was an invited poet at the VI Festival International de Poesia in Nicaragua, and in 2012 she was an invited poet at the first Asia-Pacific Poetry Festival in Vietnam.
