Robert Sullivan

Māori poet Robert Sullivan was born in Auckland, New Zealand. He earned an MA from the University of Auckland. His poems examine Māori culture; in a review, Craig Santos Perez says, “Sullivan shifts through the ever-changing terms of an oral tradition into the scripted presence of the word. … Sullivan suggests that the poem is a site for the intersections of Māori identity to enter into critical and lyric dialogue.” Sullivan edits the online journal trout and teaches creative writing at the Manukau Institute of Technology.

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Maui’s Mission

By Robert Sullivan

In the warmth of night I put feet to my plan: waited
for my brothers to sleep. They’d spent the day
sharpening their hooks, repairing the great net,
filling gourds with fresh water. They’d bundled
taro wrapped in leaves sitting below the cross seats.
The...

Nature
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