Tony Chad lives in Whiteman’s Valley, Upper Hutt, where he endeavours to find the best balance of paid employment, the arts and a subsistence lifestyle. He is editor of monthly poetry magazine Valley Micropress, helps organise poetry and other arts events and hosts a “what’s on” Access Radio slot.

His CD of original songs Sun Over Kapiti has sold over 800 copies, but he is probably best known for performances with his Irish band Finn McCool. Tony’s haiku have appeared in various anthologies and journals and one is inscribed on a boulder on the Katikati Haiku Pathway. His work appeared in a taste of nashi, the 2008 New Zealand haiku anthology. Contact Tony.

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on the parched earth
hawk’s shadow:
war-planes over Iraq

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putting on weight
the one-walk-a-week dog
from Paekakariki

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on the deck
abandoned dog biscuits –
and a marble

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your tears at the airport
now it’s raining
in LA

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divorced poets
share
the same page

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your “freedom” –
costing us
the Earth

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minute’s silence:
through the loudspeakers
children’s voices

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butterfly’s first flight :
sparrow’s breakfast

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our last day
together
first daffodil

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after the storm
a fallen pine –
first flower on the kowhai

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Publication notes

on the parched earth: Tapping the Tank (NZ Poetry Society anthology) 1999.

putting on weight: ibid.

on the deck: Valley Micropress 3-7, 1999.

your tears at the airport: A Savage Gathering (NZPS anthology) 2000.

divorced poets: unpublished.

your “freedom” – : unpublished.

minute’s silence: Kokako 5, 2006 (amended).

butterfly’s first flight: WinterSpin 2001.

our last day: ibid.