The poetry of Brian Turner is a paean to the local; poetry grounded in a particular setting, but redolent of universal meaning. As an epigram for his poem Just this, Turner quotes the American poet and environmental activist Gary Snyder:
Find your place on the planet, dig in,
and take responsibility from there.
The ‘place’ for much of Turner’s poetry is the landscape of Central Otago, which is where he lived from 1999. The tiny settlement of Oturehua, in the Ida valley of the Maniototo river, was where Brian Turner dug in.
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| Brian Turner reading at the Circle of Laureates event, National Library, 2016. Photographer: Mark Beatty |
An English translation of Oturehua is ‘the place where the summer star stands still’ a perfect setting for a poet whose lifelong quest involved trying to ‘find and hold on to anything that’s struck me as heartfelt and constant, something that seems durable and likely enduring.’
In poems of plain-speaking eloquence, which ‘crackled with the intensity of their sheer power of observation’ Brian Turner reminded us to pay careful attention to nature, to protect it from the depredations of the heedless and to be enchanted by the rhythms of rivers and hills.
The National Library acknowledges with sadness the passing of Brian Turner, a much-loved figure in New Zealand Literature and in the promotion of environmental awareness.
Brian, who died on 5 February, was Te Mata Estate Winery Poet Laureate between 2003 and 2005. In November last year he was made New Zealand Poet Laureate of Nature for his lifetime’s work in poetry and activism, fighting for and celebrating the natural world.
Place
Once in a while
you may come across a place
where everything
seems as close to perfection
as you will ever need.
And striving to be faultless
the air on its knees
holds the trees apart,
yet nothing is categorically
thus, or that, and before the dusk
mellows and fails
the light is like honey
on the stems of tussock grass,
and the shadows are mauve birthmarks
on the hills.
— Brian Turner
From, All That Blue Can Be, John McIndoe, 1989
