John Gibb, like Kay McKenzie Cooke, lives in Dunedin. Gibb has been a science and university reporter at the Otago Daily Times for more than 25 years.
The thin boy talks about arrivals and departures, ghosts, wind, lying awake in winter, and a robber on the run.
''Magician's Last Performance'' concludes:
Words fumble their meanings,
The alphabet mislays its sounds,
Rhythms slither snake-likeUnderground.
Magician's last performance.
The rabbit's eyes fill with tears.
A wave of wand. The audience cheers.
The last poem hops into the hat and disappears.
Gibb has flashes of awareness and hope. He produces an enormous insight. This is a quietly splendid book. The thin boy rises to the occasion throughout.
- Hamesh Wyatt lives in Bluff. He reads and writes poetry.
