Sam a hit, but unchanged

Press, 10 October 1983, Page 9

Sam a hit, but unchanged

PA Auckland Will success spoil the bard from Bottle Creek?

Now that the poet, Sam Hunt, has been acclaimed in New York and feted in Washington, might he trade in the familiar old black boots, tight pants and Tshirt for more “respectable” garb? Might he even start combing his hair? "No mate,”, said Hunt, waving a pint of beer around his favourite Vulcan Lane bar. “It was nice to get out and go over there and perform, but New Zealand is my place. “I made enough money so I don’t have to worry about it any more and there’s potential to go back and make a lot more. “But I’m no megabuck bard. Besides, the things that really matter to me don’t cost anything at all.” . Things like the old boathouse he has bought near Paremata, his adored son, Tom, aged seven, and ageing dog, Minstrel, for which he wrote his well-known “bow-wow” poems. Hunt still glows from the success of his month in the United States on a scholarship provided jointly by the Queen Elizabeth IL, Arts Council and Air. Nev^ Zealand. i

The visit coincided with Penguin’s New York publication of his book of collected poems, which received enthusiastic reviews in newspapers in both cities.

Hunt performed in a dozen Greenwich Village and First Ave bars, held poetry readings in Washington restaurants and the New Zealand Embassy, and was featured on radio and television talk-shows.

Everywhere he went, it was standing room only and eager applause. “I didn’t have a clue how the trip would go,” he said in that ragged rasp of a voice that must have had the Americans guessingvfor a while.

“I was warned before I left that I’d be chewed up and spat out over there. But Alison Roe told me I would love New York and New York would love me— and she was so right. “I still don’t know why it went the way it did, but it all happened for me. “If it had failed, I would probably have come home and settled in the Chathams.”

Hunt believes his personal style and presentation helped his easy acceptance, but emphasises that it all came down to his poetry.

“The poems most enthusiastically received were those about the little things — about being homesick and missing your little boy and your dog. “I heard American poets going on about the age, the cosmos and nuclear holocaust, but the audiences really appreciated the poems about the little basic things. “That pleased me,” he said.

Hunt plans to return for a major United States tour in April and will give readings throughout New Zealand before Christmas and in January.

He will not change athing — not as long as Tom and Minstrel are still about the boatshed.