With warrior fierceness and perceptive humour, ‘Fast-Talking PI’ Selina Tusitala
Marsh upholds the mana of the Pacific as she walks the tightrope of tradition andculture. ‘We are what we remember, the self is a trick of memory . . . history is theremembered tightrope that stretches across the abyss of all that we have forgotten’– Maualaivao Albert Wendt
Selina Tusitala Marsh draws on nursery rhymes, riddles, spells, Pasifika chants,
popular song, rap – as well as on high modernist and postmodernist literature –to produce a new collection that is spiky and fierce, brash and vital, by turns,comic, irreverent, poignant, rhapsodic, anthemic, confrontational.
– David Eggleton

Selina Tusitala Marsh’s Tightrope takes us from the bustle of the world’s largest
Polynesian city, Auckland, through Avondale and Apia, and on to London andNew York on an extraordinary poetic voyage. In Marsh’s poetry, sharp intelligencecombines a focused warrior fierceness with perceptive humour and energy, upheldby the mana of the Pacific. She mines rich veins – the tradition and culture of herwhānau and Pacific nations; the works of feminist poets and leaders; words ofdistinguished poets Derek Walcott and Albert Wendt – to probe the particularities ofwords and cultures.
Dr Selina Tusitala Marsh is of Samoan, Tuvaluan, English and French descent.
She was the first Pacific Islander to graduate with a PhD in English fromthe University of Auckland and is now an associate professor in the English
department, specialising in Pasifika literature. Her first collection, the bestselling
Fast Talking PI, won the NZSA Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry
in 2010. Marsh represented Tuvalu at the London Olympics Poetry Parnassus eventin 2012; her work has been translated into Ukrainian and Spanish and has appearedin numerous forms live in schools, museums, parks, billboards, print and online
literary journals. As Commonwealth Poet (2016) she composed and performed apoem for the Queen at Westminster Abbey.

Photo Credit (opposite page) ©Emma Hughes

3

Queens I have met

Dr Ngahuia
You wear royalty
on your chinmoko kauae
marks spirit kin of another queen
Te Arikinui Dame Te Ātairangikaahu
hawk of the morning sky
the longest glide
over Taupiri mountainan unmarked grave framed
by Tyrian purple roses.
Your crowning hair
now spiky and shortis flecked by degrees
an MA on Framea PhD on Te Arawa
your people, Tūhoe, Waikato
your black leather robe flows
your Westminster is madefrom Aotearoa clay
your rituals
vestibules of karakia
story, scholarship
lit in hollow alcovesof stone, bone, flesh
Queen Tahuri.

4

HRH Elizabeth II
Nine decadesof blue linen rule
the longest everwe were both bornon April 21st
you in ’26
me in ’71
when we meetkanohi ki te kanohi
I am exactly half your age
and for a second
think to mention it
when bowing
shaking your petite gloved hand
after you asked about the poem
a flock of frigates flying
on the Sacrarium Steps
How did you memorise it all?
I’m a poet, Your Majesty, it’s my job.
Yes, yes, I suppose it is.
Boucheron blue irises
set in the cool parchmentof your skinlines written into Britain’s history
powder-blue hat, white gloves(changed to black in therunning of the crowd)
you are twelve sick days offfrom sixty-four years of royal duty
it takes an Eckhart moment
but in those few
seconds, when we5

exchange breath
we are both
Queens of the Commonwealth.

Oprah
You are theroyal ‘O’by common decree
via talk show TV
offering up the stage’s platter
serving the hors d’oeuvres of our lives
36,000 interviews
from first black President to local resident
Yes-We-Can Obama to Ari-the-hoarder.
You share with us
at Vector Arena
that after every interview
no matter who you speak tothey all ask: Was that ok?
What you hear is: Am I ok?
You recite by memory
Caribbean kingDerek Walcott’s
Love After Love.
I met himin St Lucia
he signed my book
shook my hand
couldn’t standbecause of the stroke
the day before.
In the crowd
we three lean inkanohi ki te kanohi.
6

Alice Walker
Your shawl-sprawling
universe wraps
all the words
as we are pulled into the spinning stories
defying the gravityof racism, sexism, history.
We are about to step
on stage at Aotea Centre
in front of a sold-out
crowd of two thousand
I ask
How would you like to walk on –before me or after me?
You say
Let’s just do thisand take my hand.
We stroll onside by side
to a standing ovation
your hands become doves
criss-crossing above your heart
winging blessing and thanks
over fields of lavendernodding to the wind’s
womanist wisdom
welcome home Queens
welcome to yourselves.

7$27.99
230 x 165 mm, 112pp, paperback
ISBN: 9781869408725
Published: August 20178