The bond of time: An epic love poem

by John Puhiatau Pule

First published in a limited edition in 1985, John Pule’s epic love poem The Bond of Time is now available in a new edition from Canterbury University Press. It is one of the great poems of Oceania produced in the last century—a vast, surreal cornucopia of images, a nonlineal narrative bursting at its seams into every successive five-lined unrhymed stanza, each self-contained but caught in the net of Pule’s ravishing imagination. This is a love letter to a sea of islands, to Niue, and the entire Pacific.

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Describing the beginning of his literary career, Pule explained:

“I just wanted to write about growing up in New Zealand, and about being the youngest of 17 kids and about migration—but I wasn’t sure how to organise ideas, so I just started writing.”
He also described his writing as a means of "decolonizing his mind". His work expresses his experience as a Niuean in New Zealand:

“My heart and my thoughts were always on Niue. But here I was living in Aotearoa on someone else's land. Writing helped change me, painting helped change me. I went back to Niue as often as I could, and I'd weed and clear the graves for my family and friends' families. It's a way of saying I'm back. [...] We go back home [to Niue] with our Nikes and our jeans and we think we know things. But the local people just think we're stupid. They know where all the trees are and the pathways and where the mythologies and the stories live."
Pule's first novel, The Shark that Ate the Sun (Ko E Mago Ne Kai E La), was published in 1992. Burn My Head in Heaven (Tugi e ulu haaku he langi) followed in 2000, and Restless people (Tagata kapakiloi) in 2004.

His published poetry includes Sonnets to Van Gogh and Providence (1982), Flowers after the Sun (1984) and Bond of Time (1985).

In 2000 Pule was the University of Auckland Literary Fellow and in 2002 took up a distinguished visiting writer's residency in the department of English at the University of Hawaii. In 2005 he was awarded an art residency at Roemerapotheke, Basel, Switzerland and in 2004 he was honoured with the prestigious Laureate Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand.[citation needed]. In the 2012 Queen's Birthday and Diamond Jubilee Honours Pule was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services as an author, poet and painter. He was awarded the Ursula Bethell Residency in Creative Writing at the University of Canterbury in 2013.

Reviews

[Fernando · Rating 3 out of 5]

From my Instagram account @Onebookonecountry

Euphoric, erotic, angry and conflictuous.

Pule explores all types of love in this non-linear epic poem. The scenes he conjures not only provide comfort, but also bruise. Just have a read below.

As my hands toward / your breast roam, you inhale air of / ecstasy, and we love and love / again and sleep, so gentle a sleep/

Your eyes close over in dagger and / glass; you breathe onto me anger and / black hate with holes of traps and / nets. What pain did we not suffer? / What bruises have not yet been done?

These two passages are just a couple of verses apart. #JohnPule's rhythm and structure really embody the volatility and unpredictability of love. An #EpicPoem in scale and impact, The Bond of Time is only the written manifestation of Pule's art, who is also a visual artist.

More Oceanian books here #onebookOceania
More Niuean books here #onebookNiue

This edition is by University of Canterbury Press @ucnz
#universityofcanterbury

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a difficult read, and one where I feel that a casual read doesn’t even scratch the surface of what this poem truly means. Nevertheless I enjoyed it, even though it at times felt like I lost track of the volatile love story the poem portrays and only enjoyed the beautiful poetry. John Pule has a way with words.

I supplemented my reading with Steven Gin’s academic review. He points out the strict rhythm of the stanzas - which juxtaposes the lack of coherent narrative or setting of the poem. It’s also worth looking at John Pule’s visual art, which reiterates the same themes from his poetry.

I would give 3.5 or 4 but it felt a bit like a marathon - yes, it’s an epic poem, the title says so. Might upgrade later when I’ve ruminated on the meaning for a bit.

Favourites:
• “You swim upon my body like the sea”
• “You pick orchids from a vase of understatement”
• "Do you remember the last time when? / we camped between the moon and the cries / of shy moreporks, and the sound of the sea / roared a cynical laughter of lament and / great loss of whale and dolphin, remember?"
• “as my hands toward / your breast roam, you inhale air of / ecstasy, and we love and love / again and sleep, so gentle a sleep”