Kevin has won numerous awards, including the 2004 Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement and in 2006 the A W Reed Award for his contribution to New Zealand literature. In 2000 he received an honorary doctorate from Massey University. Selected Poems 1963-2013 is published to coincide with and celebrate his 80th birthday.

From "Face to face": Summer evening : Piha ; Autumn evening : Albert Park ; For John Graham : Birkdale ; Michael’s Beach : Haast ; Ash ; Venus ; Each day would end ; Care ; Shadow ; Poem for Joseph McKenney ; Parade : Liberation Day ; Antic Hay ; Lovebird From "Educating the body": A new tune ; Thorn and wind ; Deposition ; A hidden message ; A new man ; Striking a pose ; Running a risk ; Educating the body ; A popular romance ; A modern seduction ; Violence ; A city tune ; Afterthought ; Insurrection : Rewiti Avenue ; Holiday ; Lost cities ; A hard country ; The poor go fishing ; Threnody From "A letter from Amsterdam": An electronic kind of sonnet ; Roses ; Inventing you ; Once when we were taking tea ; A musical lesson ; A letter from Amsterdam ; Catching me out From "Orchids hummingbirds and other poems": Orchids hummingbirds ; A way of sorrow ; A signal to the past ; A new technique ; Talking ; A guide to perfection ; Skin ; Printery ; A birthday card ; Auto-da-fé ; Pastoral ; A tally of my afternoon ; Spring 1971 ; An open door ; Animals and engines ; Thrace ; In memory : Tsvetan Stoyanov ; An act of reading From "A grammar of dreams": Caroline beside the sundial ; The Brazilian geologist ; The extraordinary power of love From "Literary cartoons": A literary condition ; A literary reaction ; The literary man lies in ; Literary revenge ; Literary cartoonist at work ; The literary man becomes fluent ; A literary visitation; The apotheosis of the literary man ; A literary tag ; The literary exile ; The literary convention; The literary man tends a modern garden ; A serious literary slip ; The literary man observes a window to the sky ; The literary man farewells a poem ; A literary testament ; A literary posture From "The dangers of art": A college holiday ; The dangers of art ; A separate surface ; Old troupers ; Girl in a glass case ; The poem that could not be written ; A view from the mind ; Vocations ; The man with the sideways glance ; Common knowledge ; Statements ; A perfect life ; Cloudburst ; The truth of tea-leaves ; A shrinking world ; A new territory ; A memory of Don Terris ; A view from a distance ; Lament for a good man From "Practice night in the drill hall": A matter of difference ; Raffles hotel ; Practice night in the drill hall ; The politics of glory ; The return home ; A circus act ; Expedition to a mountain lake ; A poem for Denis Glover ; A Kuala Lumpur notebook ; Definitions of ourselves From "The year of the comet": 1-4 ; 14-17 ; 18,20 ; 21 ; 24-26 From "Selected poems, 1987": The first tribute ; Autumn in exile ; Magnificat ; The young man in commodities ; A call to the bar From "Tiberius at the beehive": The name of the place ; A tour of parliament ; Political gossip ; An old man on Capri ; Caesar eaten ; Paper and ink ; Political friendship ; Radiant particles ; Enemies of state ; Ministerial apointments ; Hoopla ; The Chinese waiter ; Consider Rome as a brain ; Predicament ; A letter from home ; A soldier’s tale ; Tiberius observes the master of mosaics ; Tiberius recites a political parable ; Walking ; A lesson in politics ; News from a distance ; A final message From "Skinning a fish": Paintings in the Maniototo ; After the rain comes morning glory ; Railway jokes, 1959 ; The English connection ; Pinnacle Ridge, Mt Ruapehu ; Execution of a poet ; Skinning a fish ; A new alphabet ; Pity about the gulls ; King canary, queen cat ; Shifting house ; Paderewski’s hands ; Left for dead ; The investiture ; The protocol of laughter ; The writing life ; A soldier’s song ; Ash Tuesday ; Bad night in Whyalla ; The man with grey hair ; The man who dipped out From "Anzac Day": Anzac Day, Devonport ; Learning the truth ; Clouds on a still day in Byzantium ; Fathers ; Herstory ; A volatile fluid ; Enola Gay; Tyger, tyger ; The skies are falling ; In praise of companionable acts ; Moruroa : the name of the place From "Fourteen reasons for writing": Fourteen reasons for writing ; Questions that must be answered ; A model life ; An unforgettable day ; Walking in the dark ; Cloud ; Conversation with Sarah Quigley in a marquee ; An ode to mighty Sid ; Stormy weather ; Hills, pines, clouds ; Villanelle for a smile ; A villanelle for Daisy ; Death of a hero ; Give us a break, will you? ; Pascal’s sweets ; Awards ; The Roy Dalgarno guide to rules From "Walking the land": Walking the land ; Pool ; The pleasure of error ; Estuary, Wade rivermouth ; Poor calls ; Sailing the world ; A team effort ; The dangers of cities ; The new excelsior ; Here’s thinking of you ; An objection to leaning over backwards ; Great ; Protests to poems ; The problem with poetry ; Why anyone does it ; The boy who cried ’wolf’ ; A whiff of the old Adam ; A poetry anthology as furniture ; Porno ; Being there ; A seasonal thing to be doing ; A recipe for harvests ; The last laugh From "Airports and other wasted days": The inconsolability of airports ; Airports ; The very thought of you ; The very latest defamations ; Starting the day ; A line upon the waters ; Nothing to it ; A different country ; So much for your new year’s message, thanks ; Patterns of play ; Portrait of a poet ; A new year’s resolution ; The road ; Much talk ; Running scared ; For Bernard Brown at seventy ; The art of it ; The night ahead ; A thirteenth poem ; Preparations for the voyage ; Wasted days From "How to survive the morning": Drought ; Greetings, all The paper cockerel ; Dream ; General improvements ; Home afterthoughts ; Rain ; How I got it all so very wrong ; The treaty ; Unblocking the treaty ; Paradise ; True story ; Fumbling for substance ; Only ask ; A change in the air ; Paradox ; Poem without words ; The place of rest ; How to survive the morning From "Table talk": A new book ; Writing about you ; The man who had great plans ; A Greek transaction ; A Parnell tale ; Newsflash ; A last visit to Happy Valley ; A letter to the editor ; The wish ; Rovrufe ; Local conditions ; Istanbul airport ; Table talk ; Paris evening ; Fine day for love ; Phrasal verbs & prepositional phrases ; Joyride to Albert Road ; What is this thing called love? The poem that wrote itself From "Dreamy days & nothing done": How it all began ; Gift ; Hats off ; When they shut down all tomorrows ; Join the club ; Lamp ; Marry me Pam? ; She slips into night ; Cleaning the pond ; Magic carpet ; What she really did, or didn’t ’ An accidental poem ; Dreamy days and nothing done ; Absolutely nothing ; Long time coming ; A house in Christchurch ; Writing in Northhampton ; Mucking things up ; Real weather ; Art needs time off ; Onward, citizens ; The Turkish notebook ; Wartime at the beach ; A moment of perfection ; Day pass ; This pen.