Tom Weston

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Weston, Tom (1958–) is a poet and barrister. He was born in Christchurch where he grew up, and later attended the University of Canterbury 1978–81. His principal occupation has been as Queen's Counsel.

Weston’s poetry collections include, Small Humours of Daylight (2008), Naming the Mind Like Trees (2004), The Ambiguous Companion (1996), The Red Orchestra (1982) and Too Lost to Land, with David Vincent (1981). Joanna Braithwaite’s paintings have featured in several of his collections.

Hugh Roberts, for the NZ Listener, wrote of Naming the Mind Like Trees: ‘Tom Weston’s poetry is, for me, a visceral experience that I can’t fully explain. As I read it I get a knot in my stomach. One feels in every line the presence of a powerfully alert mind that is fully engaged with real and serious matters; it’s a little like watching a surgeon performing a delicate operation.’

Graham Brazier writes about Small Humours of Daylight in the NZ Herald: ‘Each time I search for a favourite poem in this book, it is eclipsed by another, so I choose stanzas, small twigs of verbal beauty as in the opening of ‘The Unprepared Mind’ – ‘The western island is furthest from land a place of shrubs and grasses only, a holy place, devoid of adultery.’

His writing has been published in numerous literary journals, magazines and anthologies, and his poem, ‘Traffic Noise' features online in Best New Zealand Poems 2008.

Tom Weston's latest volume of poetry is Only One Question (Steele Roberts, 2014). A poem from this collection, 'The Old Dog' appears online on the Best American Poetry blog.