Bio
Laurice Gilbert is Vice-President of the New Zealand Poetry Society, after 8 years as Empress of Everything. She has had poems published in many NZ journals and anthologies, as well as publications in Australia, the USA, Canada, the UK, and Israel. She published her first collection, My Family & Other Strangers, in December 2012 and her second book, a joint collection with Portuguese poet Hugo Kauri Justo, will be published shortly. She's in recovery after an extended period of poetry burnout.
Laurice Gilbert
To James K (22/34)
There's no dung on the potatoes, no
donkeys in the back yard. God's
not in any maimai of mine. Or
maybe he is. How would I know?
This pakeha whakaponokore has no
reason to burn the midnight oil
for invisible friends. I have my
girls, my cats, my knitting. They know
me for who I am, cliché or no.
It's a long time between masses, or rather
from one Sunday School class to the last, where
winning books for learning verses let me know
where God's or gods' priorities lie. So no,
dung doesn't promote deep roots, as far as I know.