Snapshots of a Mind

a poetry biography

The poems on this site form an autobiography, a record of growing up in Wanganui, New Zealand in the 1950s and 60s.

The 1950's was a time of innocence and naivety for many of us. A time when the world was large and remote, when distance meant days of travel and New Zealand was secure in its remote place in the South Pacific.

However, there seems to be a certain universality about the experiences I write about for whenever I have read these poems outside of New Zealand there has always been someone who comments on having had a similar experience when he or she was a child in Australia, America or the U.K.

I hope you enjoy the experience.

The references to icons of New Zealand life in the 1950s might need some explanation to readers outside of Australasia. For that I have provided a dictionary of colloquial New Zealand English and references.

All Poems 1994-2003 copyright. Alan Papprill. Manukau. New Zealand.

June 2003.
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