There is a poem in As Far As I Can See (AUP, 1999) that imagines a future time: They gave me flowers and asked where I would go. To open the eyes of the soul, I said. There is a way but this is only the first gate. 'Milk and Honey' is a dance to the music of that future time. It looks back and remembers. It looks forward and tries to see what will happen next. Its theatre is the world turning round and what can be saved each day from a life of the imagination. It builds tentative structures from smaller parts that come and go like thought itself. It is a lamentation, the universe as circus. It is a pattern of doors opening. It counts and it listens. It is a series of border-crossings between light and dark, old world and new, history and desire, body and soul, life and death, yes and no. It is a attempt on happiness, another search for the oh of transformation. It is in three parts with a gateway at either end. It can be read from the front or the back and there is seriousness but also songs along the way. Why is it called milk and honey? Because of a song. Why are there two clowns on the cover? Because one morning they were front-page news.
Author Biography
Michele Leggott is an award-winning poet and literary scholar. She is an associate professor in the department of English at the University of Auckland and the founding director of the New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre, which is at www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz. Her previous books include "As Far As I Can See," "Big Smoke," and "Young Knowledge."
