Poetry Reviews

I started realising the hypertextual potential for poetry reviews when I was sent for review a copy of Husk by Chris Price, a contemporary New Zealand poet. When I began reading the book I had enormous difficulty in getting into it. It was as if there was a whole dimension to the book that was beyond my reach. I was frustrated and began to feel quite negatively towards the poetry.

Then, towards the end of the book, I came across a poem entitled "Electroshock" which mentioned Professor Cerletti. There and then I decided that I would let Altavista mediate between the poems and me. I entered "Cerletti" and "Electroshock" as key words into an advanced Altavista search. What happened is described in the review I subsequently wrote as a print text (for English in Aotearoa) and a hypertext. Effectively, the Altavista window led to my accessing a dimension of the poems that had been beyond me. (You'll find the review hotlinked from the page: Terry Locke: New Zealand Poetry Reviews.)