If numbers are anything to go by, New Zealand poetry should be ruling the world. Thousands of poems were published during 2016 and I read all of them—well, everything I could get my hands on. Most of this was passed on by the IIML’s wonderful administrators, Katie Hardwick Smith and Clare Moleta, whenever the piles threatened to overwhelm their office.

These 25 are the ones I’ve chosen as ‘best’. The ones that made me pause and put a book/pile of paper down; made me want to go to the bakery and buy a cream torpedo then make coffee; or put my gumboots on and go and inspect the compost—the things I do when I need to think. Read on >