Voice Carried My Family is a stunning collection by Robert Sullivan. It contains strong, pervasive themes such as the rewriting of New Zealand myths from a Polynesian perspective; there are also a number of beautiful love poems. The power of the spoken word has particular meaning for an inheritor of an oral tradition and Sullivan sees himself continuing in his poetry a long line of storytellers, wits, singers. Deeply moved by his ancestors Sullivan yet engages directly and unsentimentally with the modern world, its complexity and moral ambiguity. Similarly his formal techniques borrow from ancient times and acknowledge contemporary styles and emphases.
