The Black and the White

Paris. London. Maximal New York.

But I stay here. I
do. Never quite achieving
escape velocity.

*

Mammoths in blue meadows
Pearls and coffee grits and bloodied gauze

Don’t say a word
while we dance with the Devil

The Black and the White is a new work – witty, fearless, formidably concise – from one of the most distinctive voices in New Zealand poetry.

Geoff Cochrane (1951–2022) is the author of many collections of poetry, two novels, and Astonished Dice: Collected Short Stories (2014). In 2009 he was awarded the Janet Frame Prize for Poetry, and in 2010 the inaugural Nigel Cox Unity Books Award. Geoff received an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award in 2014. His last book was Selected Poems (2023).