THE MYTHOLOGY OF PLACE:

JAMES K. BAXTER'S OTAGO WORLDS

Lawrence Jones
II
The Brighton World
Page 12 
But, in our human time, the farm reminds us of loss and mortality, although he can at least be loyal to memory. The poet takes away a 'splinter of slate' from the old chimney to 'hold [him] back if [he] tried to leave this island' where he hopes he will someday  be buried.   On an earlier visit he remembered 'Here my father showed me Orion and the Plough' and mourned 'The star that fell at midnight will not shine forth again'. 
  In Brighton township itself the house and garden on Bedford Parade where he spent most of his childhood and adolescence are associated with his father and mother.  His father is seen mostly in relation to the garden and the surrounding landscape, embodying the cycles of nature, including loss but also sometimes the possibility of rebirth or redemption. 
He is seen 
     . . . up a ladder plucking down
     The mottled autumn-yellow
     Dangling torpedo-clusters
     Of passion-fruit for home-made wine. 
 
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