James Keir (Hemi) Baxter 1926 - 1972
New Zealands best known poet. He was born in Dunedin, to a father who was an objector to the first world war, and a mother who was interested in languages.
HEMI
portrait in bronze by
Joan Morrell.
For more details,
click HERE.He began to write at the age of seven, and spent two years in Britain before returning home during the second world war. After the war he enrolled at Otago University, but quit a short time after.
In 1950 he joined Alcoholics Anonymous and in 1966 he devoted his life to the drug addicts and alcoholics of Wellington and Auckland. In 1969 he established a commune at Jerusalem, up the Whanganui River, and three years later he was buried there, to be remembered worldwide for his poetry, and in New Zealand for his support of outcasts from society.
He is known best among New Zealand folk-singers for his song "By the Dry Cardrona."