Seagull Seagull

Description

Seagull Seagull

Poems by James K. Baxter

Illustrated by Kieran Rynhart

(Gecko Press)– hardback

Seagull Seagull riding high./ What do you see/ With your bold, bright eye’.  Bookwagon welcomes a beautiful collection of poems by New Zealand’s foremost children’s poet, James K. Baxter. Kieran Rynhart presents his selection within lush, empathetic settings. Therefore, within ‘If I Were the King of Sweden’  a pair ‘breakfast on marshmallow/ And have the same for tea.’ Meanwhile, in the foreground stands a large, battered utility where a child imagines, dreams… Across a double-page roar ‘Twenty Little engines/ Whistling in the yard‘. Thereafter,  ‘Spring-heeled Jack‘ jumps into a spotlit circle, ‘higher than anyone/ Else in the town.’

There’s a directness in James K. Baxter’s poetry that makes his works particularly accessible. Furthermore, he neither embellishes nor chooses subjects that are unreachable. Therefore, we can imagine the ships that ‘wash to and fro:/ Drum, drum, drum,/ Say the engines below.’ His rhyme is distinctive and his imagery immediate so that we are there.

Bookwagon suggests every child would enjoy the warmth and possibilities of James K. Baxter’s works for is something universal in his writing. For example in ‘The Gorse Fire’, a feared occurrence for New Zealanders, the poet’s words ensure we realise this fear, ‘A little thing flame/ Came galloping fast/ Then roared up higher/Than the top of a mast.’  One of the wonders of poetry is its universality of feeling and experience.  Bookwagon is delighted to welcome and recommend Seagull Seagull.