Dark Sparring: Poems

by Selina Tusitala Marsh

Where Selina Marsh s first collection, "Fast Talking PI," boldly, insightfully, and lyrically wrestled with the realities of being an individual of Pacific descent in a primarily European world, her latest offering fiercely combats the loss of a loved one with all of the techniques of poetry and the Thai kickboxing she practices at her disposal. The compendium brims with a fluid, humming list of poems, literary shout outs, and personal elegies, as Marsh takes readers through her mother s cancer diagnosis and the long journey as her illness played itself out. Along the way, the poet offers glimpses of other parts of her world as well: scenes from Matiatia to Orapiu to Apia; classroom politics; the importance of leadership; and the reasons she feels New Zealand is a lucky country. The affecting, rhythmic verses in the book are given a literal, and appealing, voice in the accompanying audio CD, on which Marsh reads aloud a selection of the poems."

Genres: Poetry

106 pages, ebook

First published November 27, 2013

About the author

Dr Selina Tusitala Marsh is of Samoan, Tuvaluan, English, Scottish and French descent. She was the first Pacific Islander to graduate with a PhD in English from The University of Auckland and is now 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. She has published two additional collections, Dark Sparring (2013) and Tightrope (2017). Marsh represented Tuvalu at the London Olympics Poetry Parnassus event in 2012; her work has been translated into multiple languages and has appeared in numerous forms live in schools, museums, parks, billboards, print and online literary journals. As Commonwealth Poet (2016), she composed and performed for the Queen at Westminster Abbey. She became New Zealand’s Poet Laureate in 2017 and in 2019 was appointed as an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to poetry, literature and the Pacific community.

Reviews

[Trish Tupou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blackbird

In the girl's dream
she is pulling her hair
out, clumps and clumps of it
fistfuls of black empty nests
too tangled to hold any live thing
ferociously spinning lies round empty sleep.

In the girl's dream
her younger sister has died.
Spirit-sister sits perched on the end of the girl's bed
a broken bird with the phone
dangling from its beak.

The mother enters the room.

The girl reaches out her hands
to take her mother's
then decides
this is no time for decorum.
The girl rises and takes her mother's shuddering body to hers
she cradles her
they rise and fall
like the ocean off the coast of Savai'i
emerald green
deep and fishless.

Then,
on opening her eyes
the girl remembers
it is her mother who has died
it is her sister who is sinking
and it is her arms that are empty.

[Georgia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I normally don’t enjoy poetry books. When I say that, I don’t think I’ve ever finished one before. Dark Sparring captivated me though. I found it at an op shop on Waiheke where the poet, Selina Tusitala Marsh, lives. I’ve enjoyed her poems ever since I first heard them which was actually when she lectured on them herself in one of the first papers I ever took at university. This collection was so moving and inspiring. Marsh cathartically explores the effects cancer has in a variety of ways through several poems, a topic that certainly resonates with me. As a teacher, I cannot but help look through that lens too. There were a range of poems that celebrated her Pasifika heritage and even turangawaewae through a beautiful tribute to Waiheke in the opening poem “Chant From Matiatia to Orapiu” that only made sense to me because I’d just visited. There are definitely several I’d love to share with my students including the powerful poem “Lead” that comprehensively addresses what it is to be a leader.
4.5/5

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cried. You do not know me and yet your words beat inside me. Thank you.

[Bex · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I really do like Marsh's way with words.