Bernard Gadd was born in 1935 in Hamilton, and died in Auckland in December 2007. He was married with two adult children.

Bernard was a former high school teacher and technical institute tutor in English as a second language (ESOL) and had short stories, novels, drama and non-fiction published, much of it for teenage readers. He was also an occasional small press publisher and anthologist, and most recently was senior editor of the Auckland anthology Manukau in Poetry.

His most recent poetry collection was Pokeno Opposes the Kaiser (Hallard Press, 2004).  For several years he was co-editor of Kokako journal, transitioning the journal from its previous incarnation as winterSPIN. Bernard won both the Bravado poetry contest and the Takahe cultural essay contest in 2004, and was judge for the 2005 NZ Poetry Society senior haiku contest. His haiku, tanka and poetry have appeared internationally in print and on-line.

Read tributes made at the time of Bernie’s death.

 

lost tour bus
between fences
in Landscape Road
  
  
hissing line to China …
your reply’s
delay
  
  
Amish joke
old-style string-base bed
only for unwanted guests
  
  
boy
scooting in boater and braces
ignores
tourist eyes
  
  
backless benches …
vertebrae follow
straightness
of the Word …

 
  
carter polishing hooves
crouches out
of camera shot
  
  
admires the new handbag    
on the window sill
then Rangitoto’s Fuji
  
  
new moon                           
more brilliant than the colour
of my lamp lit hair
  
  
again imagining drifts
on a stream through
bridge shadow  
             
  
silver paper glints …   
her death’s anniversary
origami cranes
 

Publication notes:

lost tour bus: Haiku Canada, 2003.

hissing line to China …: the whole wide world (NZ Poetry Society anthology) 2000.

Amish joke: winterspin (NZ), 2000.

boy: ibid.

backless benches …: ibid.

carter polishing hooves: ibid.

admires the new handbag: kiwihaiku (NZPS newsletter), 2004.

new moon: Haiku Canada, June 2005.

again imaging drifts: engraved on a Katikati Haiku Pathway paver, March 2004.

silver paper glints …: unpublished.