Live Encounters Aotearoa New Zealand Poets & Writers March 2026
Unlived Life, poems by Jeffrey Paparoa Holman.
Unlived life
Aerial odes
Birds of paradise
A rainbow in a tree was my first bird.
All I could hear was colour, singing songs –
crayons, paints and eggshells, all at once.
I stumbled home with my tropical hoard,
jumbled nonsense in excited lungs, to
jabber at Mum of the happenstance.
“I saw a bird, a bird, it was gold and red!
It had two silver, silver wings!
It flew inside me, Mum! It’s true!”
& radiance came to nest
at the end of my bed.
Jeffrey Paparoa Holman writes poetry, short fiction, history and memoir. He has published seven volumes of poetry; Best of Both Worlds (history, 2010); The Lost Pilot (memoir, 2013); Now When it Rains (memoir, 2017).
As Big As A Father (Steele Roberts, 2002) was shortlisted in the Montana Book Awards, Poetry, 2003. Best of Both Worlds: the story of Elsdon Best and Tutakangahau (2010) was shortlisted in the Ernest Scott Prize, History (2011, Australia). His most recent work, a family history, Lily, Oh Lily – Searching for a Nazi ghost, is published by Canterbury University Press.