I never saw the skipper
in her sand boat—the star-gazer.
The years went away, the ship
now beached in the garden.

Smothered in the leaves of fall
the boat stays here
and will surrender soon to winter’s
weight of snow.

Weathered by sun and sleet
it has seen better days
before winds broke the seats
once carrying small passengers
on their rich journeys.

Too precious by far to throw away
it lives again on my book’s cover—
Sydney’s sand boat—the time traveller
with its cargo of dreams.

"Her first book Weather Report was quite stunning…even so, her work is not as well known as it should be. Her real art is communication and she has professional experience in all aspects of it." Trevor Reeves, Southern Ocean Review.

"Fry’s poems are utterly present in the world. In that sense she works in the tradition of New Zealand poetry; indeed New Zealand is part of the pulse of many poems in the collection (‘Daymoon’) whether they directly engage with the landscape or not. It is a book of distinct power and beauty." Patricia Prime, Takahe.

"The author’s conflation of public and private concerns, with a healthy preference for the private, combines with a delightful selection of shamelessly Romantic images… to weave heady magic." Tony Beyer, judge of the 2008 NZ Poetry Society Competition.

"Robin is doing what I most admire her for: writing with a sense of community, feeling for the hidden meaning of experience, and, affirming with telling detail, the imaginative day-to-day relevance of poetry." Stephanie de Montalk, launching ‘Daymoon’ at Unity Books, Wellington