This collection of poems attest to the enduring nature of love and reflect the many ways in which it is written about. It is a celebration of love, as well as life, language and place. The poems span the traditional and the modern in the forms they use and the attitudes they contain.

Table of Contents

When she speaks, A.R.D. Fairburn; Pavilion, Bill Manhire; Singing for you now, Sam Hunt; Vignette - Summer in winter, Katherine Mansfield; Salt, Paola Bilbrough; Inventing you, Kevin Ireland; Early morning bus, Garham Lindsay; Song of consequences, Murray Edmond; Shift, Bob Orr; Aztec noon, Geoff Cochrane; And my heart goes swimming, Roma Potiki; Rangitoto/Canoe, Virginia were; The tides run up the Wairau, Eileen Duggan; Bon voyage, Alistair Te ariti Campbell; The sounds, Andrew Johnston; The legend of Marcello Mastroianni's wife, Elizabeth Smither; The ring is lovely, Elizabeth Nannestad; Crikey, Cilla McQueen; Ruth, Ian Wedde; Turning brown and torn in two, James Brown; Trust, Robin Hyde; At last, Iain Sharp; Poem, Jan Kemp; Love poem, Bill Manhire; The foreign city of two minds, Michele Leggott; But you love, Wystan Curnow; My love late walking, James K. Baxter; Gree, Alistair Te Ariki Campbell; Ariel, Bob Orr; Thine own hands have fashioned, Hone Tuwhare; The kiss, Elizabeth Nannestad; The promise, Alan Riach; Wedding song, Jenny Bornholdt; from In your presence, Charles Brasch; When in still air, Eileen Duggan; Weighing up the heart, Jenny Bornholdt; Matai rore au / love song, traditional Maori from Uta, C.K. Stead; Seven wishes, Fiona Farrell; Love by candle light, Mary Stanley; Not made with hands, Ruth Gilbert; Big houses, John Newton; Even in the dark, Ruth Gilbert; Our love was a grim citadel, R.A.K. Mason; Love poem, Vincent O'Sullivan; The cave, A.R.D. Fairburn; The grin, Keith Sinclair; from The Greek anthology, Ross Fraser; Per Diem et per noctem, Mary Stanley; from The poem then, for love, Michael Harlow; A proposition, J.C. Sturm; from Water, women and birds gather, Dinah Hawken; Like lamplight, Brian Turner; See what a little moonlight can do to you? Hone Tuwhare; My sunshine, Bill Manhire; Brightness, Denis Glover; Paradox, Judith Lonie; from The photograph, Joanna Margaret Paul; The history of Coca-Cola, Hugh Lauder; Beautiful golden girl of the sixties, Ian Wedde; Leap,wystan Curnow; About ourselves, Denis Glover; Wife to husband, Fleur Adcock; After loving, Meg Campbell; Earthquake weather, Fiona Kidman; A late honeymoon, Iain Lonnie; The mountain, Lauris Edmond; Signals, Charles Brasch; She was my love who could deliver, J.R. Hervey; Seven mysteries, Michael Jackson; The golden flower, Helen Shaw; He Waiata mo te Kare, James K. Baxter.