Alistair Te Ariki Campbell
Poet
1925—2009
Blue rain from a clear sky.
Our world a cube of sunlight –
but to the south
the violet admonition
of thunder.
From 'Blue Rain' in The Dark Lord of Savaiki: Collected Poems, Hazard Press, 2003
Where to find it
Go down steps to walkway over the water, between Circa Theatre and the harbour, or view it from above.
- Steps
About the author
Alistair Campbell was born in Penrhyn in the Cook Islands. His parents both died young, and from 1933 his home was a Dunedin orphanage. He arrived in Wellington in 1945 and became involved with people who shared his interest in poetry, including James K Baxter and Louis Johnson.
‘I developed a good feeling about myself,’ he has said of those times, ‘and that possibly eventually I might write some good poems.’
Campbell’s first collection announced a distinctive lyrical voice, drawing on the European traditions of his education and an intense response to the natural world. His return to the Cook Islands in 1976 led to a renewed engagement with his Pacific background and heritage; a dimension evident in The Dark Lord of Savaiki (1980).
With thanks to Moore Wilson Ltd
