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A retired school teacher and lifelong student of theology living in Red Beach has published a volume of poems reflecting his personal journey with family, friends, students and colleagues, but one which he also hopes may inspire a wider readership.
Steve Beguely’s Songs of the Beloved bundles together a range of topics and poetic forms, from sonnets dedicated to his newborn grandchildren to poems grappling with deep political and religious issues – including a subject of particular interest to him, the end times as envisaged in the Bible’s apocalyptic passages.
The poems are drawn from a life of secondary school teaching, academic study, and personal and family challenges big and small.
Steve traces a creative streak to his youth in Auckland, when he dabbled in watercolour. He remembers causing a stir among acquaintances by painting a portrait of Jimmy Hendrix surrounded by imagery relating to death – three months before the musician died, aged 27.
As a young man he was heavily involved in karate, and at one stage helped to run a disco in South Auckland, designed to keep local kids off the streets. It was burnt down months later, presumably by gang members who had been denied entry.
Other memorable episodes from those years include working as a Red Cross volunteer during protests against the Springbok rugby tour, including the infamous ‘flour bomb test’ at Eden Park in 1981.
After Steve embraced the Christian faith in 1980, he felt the urge to write, and poetry came naturally.
His career as a geography and social studies teacher took him to several schools, including Auckland Grammar and St Peter’s College, before he accepted a post in 1997 at Rutherford College in Te Atatu. He eventually became head of the social science faculty, retiring in 2014.
Along the way he authored several school textbooks, and he and his wife Sue both completed honours degrees in biblical theology at the Bible College of New Zealand.
Getting his poems published now was driven by a desire “to leave a legacy for the family, mainly of all the things I’d written for them, but also for friends, past students and teachers I had associations with, some of whom have been ‘immortalised’ in verse”.
“In a way, it’s a tribute to all the people who’ve contributed to my life – family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances.”
Moving from the city to the Coast seven years ago was a return of sorts: He recalls family holidays at a bach in Ōrewa in the late 1950s and early 1960s, comprising swimming, roller skating, open-air film shows, and watching stunning sunsets – his “first real spiritual experience”, convincing him, aged seven, “that God must exist”.
Fittingly, the author of school textbooks on coastal geography has retired to a home overlooking the ocean. He enjoys sitting, taking in the view, including on one special occasion the sight of a visiting pod of dolphins.
“The very first morning we were here, there was a golden sunrise, and bathing in this golden light was a three-masted sailing ship [the Spirit of Adventure Trust’s barquentine],” he recalls. “It was such a blessing. Wonderful, I thought. This is where we need to be.”
WIN THE BOOK Hibiscus Matters has two copies of Songs of the Beloved to give away. To go into the draw, ‘like’ Hibiscus Matters on Facebook and message us your name and phone number with Songs of the Beloved in the message. Alternatively, write your name, address and daytime phone number on the back of an envelope and post or drop into Songs of the Beloved giveaway, Hibiscus Matters, 21 Florence Ave, Ōrewa. Entries close on Friday, February 2. Songs of the Beloved (Wipf and Stock/Resource Publications) is available in hardback, soft cover and e-version at online booksellers and through Mighty Ape and Fishpond. • Songs of the Beloved (Wipf and Stock/Resource Publications) is available in hardback, soft cover and e-version at online booksellers and through Mighty Ape and Fishpond.
