Richard Reeve, a prominent poet of my generation in New Zealand, sent me a cricket poem for my journal broadsheet back in 2018. I sent it on to The Cricket Society News Bulletin. It’s an interesting poem that draws on the late Martin Crowe’s attributed quote by Ross Taylor, his batting protégé.
It’s a cricket poem in traditional structure and
form. Reeves excels in word-magic and neo formalism as a poet, and not many
poets in New Zealand compare to him. He has been represented in Best New
Zealand Poems a number of times and published seven collections of his
poetry. His collections are well worth seeking out at bookshops and public libraries in New
Zealand.
RICHARD REEVE
Butterflies
‘If you see a butterfly out there, that’s me’
─ attributed to Martin Crowe
So he was, then was not. Martin
Crowe dead,
a detail from his brief life resurrected.
This his protégé, novus homo, said,
our latest greatest ever. Undetected,
the talent grew inside him like a cancer;
he cultivated genius for the bat,
not contemplating any other answer
to elevate a sportsman’s requiescat.
Nor are answers in any case required
for life to be lived as it may be lived,
men having achieved what they have desired
incompetent yet eager in their shift.
Certainly, there are butterflies out there,
they flutter in the slips, or after games
superintend the crowds, in post-match air
inspiring fans with afterlives of names;
yet they are not our champion now gone,
not Crowe nor Cronje, Tendulkar, Taylor.
Fleeting ascendance, forewing, abdomen,
they float on dreams then sink in failure.
Poem © Richard Reeve
Reeve’s latest collection of
poetry was released in 2024: About Now -
Richard Reeve - General Editions Studio.
Also check out Best New Zealand Poems for 2024.
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