Karlo Mila

Karlo Mila Poems

Karlo Mila Biography

Karlo Mila is a New Zealand poet. She is of Tongan, Palangi (Palagi) and Samoan heritage, and educated at Massey University in Palmerston North. Her first award was the NZSA Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry at the 2006 Montana New Zealand Book Awards, for Dream Fish Floating.[1] She then went on to contribute to anthologies such as Whetu Moana (Auckland University Press, 2003), Niu Voices (Huia Publishers, 2006), and Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of New Fusion Poetry (Rattapallax Press, 2002). She has had her second book published, A Well Written Body (Huia, 2008), in collaboration with German-born artist Delicia Sampero. Mila says she has been writing poetry since standard three. Her work has been described as "poetry [that] speaks to the soul". Her creative-style includes many references to her cultural roots including the broader Pacific, political issues, and love. She is also interested in the idea of literary whakapapa (genealogy), dedicating entire sections to it - "Chanting Back To The Bones" and "Tuakana" - in Dream Fish Floating. Currently, she is completing her PhD in Sociology at Massey University, after being based in Auckland for 10 years.)

The Best Poem Of Karlo Mila

Wednesday Afternoon

My father is "having fun"
cleaning the floor
he uses the plugged in sink as a bucket
wears rags on his feet
and shimmies to a cleaning beat
he asks me to read the label
on the bottle for him
he wants our floor to shine
and laughs when (surprise)
it does
this is how I will remember him
moonwalking across our kitchen floor
rags under his feet
"that's how my mother taught me"
he says
"but I never take any note
it takes me forty years to do what she say"

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