Review: anthology (n.) a collection of flowers

Gail Ingram’s third collection of poetry, anthology (n.) a collection of flowers, is a 110-page volume in five sections, 72 poems in total, each titled with the name and image of a native plant or flower from Aotearoa. The aim of the collection is to ‘cross-pollinate the stalwart field guide with the genre of poetry,’ and cross-pollinate it does.

The poet takes on the name of Flora throughout the book; the reader is told this for certain on page 41, in footnote 3 on the poem ‘Flora has a house / for the botanists of Aotearoa’, on the page entitled ‘Kākā Beak, Clianthus punicens / a climbing glory pea also called Lobster’s Claw’. The poem itself references Tāne Mahuta, God of the Forest, alongside Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, colonising botanists from Captain Cook’s earliest voyage. Most poems have their own set of varied references, the collection heavy with them, which a reader could spend many days exploring. At times the poems are in the voice of the flowers, their seeds and germinations: ‘And here are the birds the birds have found her She knows beak She knows claw’ (‘Mikimiki whispers’) at other times the collection moves to tell the story of the author, through childhood, adulthood, and as Flora:

‘i stop to chat to the flower at the side of the track. she says notice the light not the shadows . I say why . my feet are sore .’ (‘The tears of Mazus radicans, or stopping to chat to the flower at the side of the track’) While these lines focus on the immediate, as well as the interplay between author and flower, other poems explore the author’s journey and also distil topics that play heavy in today’s psyche: colonialism, family, the role of women, the climate crisis and its effects on ecosystems, and more. The book has many, many facets and ideas, and while it could be considered overstuffed, it could also be thought of as the kind of collection readers should dip into, to follow whatever thread takes their fancy at the time.

But if one thing is certain, it's this: the collection's obsession with the flora of Te Wai Pounamu will delight lovers of Aotearoa’s native plants, as will the blooming colour images.