Gayle King-Tamehana

Waikato



Gayle King-Tamehana was educated at Tokoroa High School and has been an adult student at Aorere College.

    Poetry

  • "Brother." Tu Tangata 13 (1983): 23.
  • This poem is about the speaker’s confusion of identity torn between a world of conflicting values. She writes of her shame at despising her own brother’s unkempt appearance, while recognising his enormous wealth in terms of being fluent in te reo Māori.
  • "The First Farewell." Tu Tangata 14 (1983): 31-32.
  • The speaker recalls her early childhood years living with her nanny in a warm secure world that was suddenly interrupted by her nanny’s death.
  • "The Second Farewell." Tu Tangata 14 (1983): 32-34.
  • In this second poem, the speaker has grown up, has married and has had two young children. But the spectre of her existence is an unfaithful husband who beats her and finally leaves her.