C. K. Stead has always swum through literature, cultures, surroundings both physical and social, with a deft stroke. Completed in his eightieth year, his collection The Yellow Buoy sees the poet firmly attached to his memories, attuned to his craft and attentive to his world. Here, in classic vein, Catullus returns to receive the ONZ, write to friends and 'read the world'. Various other literary fellows appear in person, dream or conversation - Curnow, Kawharu, Sargeson, Creeley, Mansfield, Wordsworth - and the book includes warmly translated versions of poems by Montale, Vita and Jaccottet alongside glimpses of fantails and elegies for friends. These poems urge a reader to stay alert, to pay attention to 'the poetic moment / so easily missed, / so quickly lost.' From his green enclave and 'avid for copy', this poet is singing still - but also considering the acceptance of silence.

Author Biography

C. K. Stead was born in Auckland in 1932. Since the late 1950s, he has had an international reputation as a poet, literary critic and novelist, published more than 40 books and received numerous prizes and honours. He has won the PM's Award for Fiction and been made a CBE and ONZ for his services to literature.