Peter Olds
Peter Olds is a New Zealand poet. He was born in Christchurch. Freed the poetry magazine 1969–72 published him, and he was a central figure to the younger poets of the 1970s. He held the University of Otago Robert Burns Fellowship in 1978. Influences on his poetry include American rock'n'roll, the 1950s beat poetry of Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, and his own experiences in psychiatric institutions. Olds currently lives in Dunedin.
He left school at 16, and began writing in 1966. His first volume of poems was Lady Moss Revived, followed by V-8 Poems, The Snow and the Glass Window, Freeway, Doctor’s Rock and Beethoven’s Guitar. His published broadsheets include Exit: 2 Poems, Schizophrenic Highway, The Habits You Left Behind: Poem, and Schizophrenic Rhino. He replied to his friend James K. Baxter's poem Letter to Peter Olds with his Doctor’s Rock.
