Juvenilia

by Hera Lindsay Bird

The North American debut by cult favorite New Zealand poet Hera Lindsay Bird, Juvenalia wrangles the flamboyant, provocative pique of youth into a poetry collection highly focused and desperately alive.

this impressive debut has established Hera Lindsay Bird as a good girl………with many beneficial thoughts and feelings………



with themes as varied as snow and tears, the poems in this collection shine with the fantastic cream of who she is………juxtaposing many classical and modern breezes



Bird turns her prescient eye on love and loss, and what emerges is like a helicopter in fog………or a bejewelled Christmas sleigh, gliding triumphantly through the desert………



this is at once an intelligent and compelling fantasy of tenderness………



heartbreaking and charged with trees………without once sacrificing the forest………



Whether you are masturbating luxuriously in your parent’s sleepout………



………or pushing a pork roast home in a vintage pram………



this is the book for you………………………



heroically and compulsively stupid………………………………………

Genres: Poetry

114 pages, Paperback

Published June 3, 2025

About the author

Born 1987 in Thames. She attended Victoria University of Wellington and then received her Master's degree in poetry from its International Institute of Modern Letters.

One of New Zealand's most promising poets, Ms Bird was one of 11 recipients of the annual Arts Awards of New Zealand in 2017.

Reviews

[Ryan]

Think back to the era of Chelsey Minnis when I read 3 of her books in like 4 months.

Told Linnea today I really liked it but I think even that undersells it. To me this book so clearly encompasses the idea of modern poetry, embodying it and crafting it in order to synthesize a larger more complicated image of POETRY. She talks about the action of writing and being honest with the reader and herself about what she contains in her poetry (saliently, recalling "I don't know where this metaphor is going" and "if I know anything about myself, it is probably Love"). Even on a surface level each poem is easy to digest via humor and her repeated ideas and themes -- love and loss of love (I especially enjoy how she recognizes this idea -- loss -- as a human thing but still shows her weakness toward it). The whole thing often feels easy to connect with and for me I often had an idea of the feeling, both in person, and idea "how dare you be the kind of person I would immediately fall completely / in love with / and be devastated if you left / how dare you come and do that / your eyes / like two black cats / licking their assholes / in the hot morning sun of my face"

The only problem now being how hard it is to get my hands on her other work.

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first book I received from my new Deep Vellum subscription. What a delightful surprise! From Bird's hilariously honest voice to the charming little icons and illustrations by Gino Dal Cin, this was refreshingly unexpected and has quite a singular feel. Irreverent, authentic expressions run up against goofy topics and unique comparisons.

"Like accidentally wishing on a satellite and getting women’s golf instead
of happiness…" (from "Lost Scrolls")

O I feel sorry for the people I love and where I’m taking them
because I don’t thinking I’m good enough
I think it’s okay to admit the people you love are better than you
I wouldn’t date anyone who wasn’t
imagine dating someone worse than yourself on purpose
that’s the kind of fucked up thing only everyone I’ve ever loved would do (from "Jealousy")

You can read more than a few of these on Bird's website (https://sites.google.com/view/heralin...), as well as hear her read some. I guess I now have a favorite New Zealand poet.
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Faves:
- Ways of Making Love
- Lost Scrolls
- The Ex-Girlfriends Are Back from the Wilderness
- Waste My Live
- Keats Is Dead So Fuck Me from Behind

[Kirk Bozeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yay! Hera Lindsay Bird’s poetry is so lovely, funny, quirky, modern, rich, and real. I did not realize this was a collection of other poems I had already read, but this was completely fine, as reading them all again here was a joy. Perhaps a great place to start, if you like.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars for the poems but be aware this is mostly reprinted material-think it’s the first US publication of her work but as someone who owns Pamper Me to Hell & Back and Hera Lindsay Bird most (all?) of the poems in here are repeats. Who cares though don’t mind owning multiples.

[Jill McLaughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a no-skips poetry collection and I never say that about poetry collections, or records for that matter.