Made for Weather: Poems

Cooke's theme, like Robin Hyde's, is one of finding 'a home in this world': hers is an authentic poetry of place, with a fidelity to experience comparable to that of other more established poets such as Bernadette Hall or Brian Turner. Poems contain an array of striking images, developed from Cooke's exposure as a child and adolescent to the wind-whipped coastline of Orepuki, now a ghost town on the eastern fringe of Te WaewaeBay, near Fiordland. The passing of seasons features in the background of scenes which are dominated by ostensibly contemporary concerns such as a wild and woolly boyfriend, or collecting Toheroa. The poet has a gift for capturing people in day-to-day, incidental situations. Cooke has forged poetry out of common speech which synthesises unpretentiously the elemental energy at her fingertips.McKenzie Cooke, Kay is the author of 'Made for Weather: Poems', published 2007 under ISBN 9781877372490 and ISBN 1877372498.