Taupō Swamp
The first time I became aware of Taupō Swamp was when the Queen came to visit. A platform was erected atop a small grassy knoll beside State Highway One. From here the Queen could stand, her back to the traffic, to admire the sea of flax, and perhaps wave royally across its expanse at commuters on the Kāpiti train line. My parents felt a bit sorry for her – but they were also amused.
No company today
Sunday alone, legging up Hemi Matenga powered by timtams and how fit I wasten years ago. Tripping on roots sitting uplike suitcase handles on the clay hard angles. No company today but crisp leavescompound, serrated, the young fern coils.Tonight scallops and beer in Whangarei.And here I see only red markers andKohekohe piercing through thebubble wrap […]
Goose summer, Whareroa Farm
Today we dawdle up the north-east valley track,inclined together on the edge of sun and shade.Late April, and decline – the year’s and yours – feels gentlein this spread of after-season summer. The sky is crazed with gossamer.We might not have noticed if we hadn’t pausedto lounge against the bank,seen against the lightthe stream of […]
Hope
It is to do with trees: being amongst trees. It is to do with tree ferns: mamaku, ponga, wheki. Shelter under here is so easily understood. You can see that trees know how it is to be bound into the earth and how it is to rise defiantly into the sky. It is […]
An artist waits for the light
A man walks by in bright yellow boots,an armchair on his head upside down, like a childin an ill-fitting helmet. Kapiti stands out, silhouettedshark teeth snarled against sunset,looking hungry. Almost time. A few seconds onlywhen flat, setting lightplays on the escarpmentits evening spectrum;slopes glow through yellow,peach, and red, to violet, grey – then gone.
The kingdom of heaven (to Haina)
the kingdom of heaven is but a little way along the sand track, through the bushy flaxes, the sunlitdunes down to the riverand across the bridge Listen to Apirana:
Looking at Kāpiti
Sleep, Leviathan, shouldering the AsianNight sombre with fear, kindled by one starSmouldering through the fog, while the goaded oceanRecalls the fury of Te Rauparaha. Massive, remote, familiar, hung with spray,You seem to guard our coast, sanctuaryTo our lost faith, as if against the dayInvisible danger drifts across the sea. And yet in the growing darkness […]
Prawn tide
As the sun came up, a faint frost dusted dunes and tussocks then disappeared. Behind the breakers white vapour floated, throwing a veil over island hills haunch-hunkered by the water. The moon set pink this morning; now red prawns flow and writhe in lines along the tide mark in a plague of plenty. Birds wallow […]
Good Friday
TawhirimateaClaims the air tonight,Blinds the outward eyeWith needles of rain.TangaroaRides the full tide in,Pounding the mind’s beachesIncessantly with Sound. NowOld altars will be overturned,Judgemental gods forsaken,Guilt, shame, sin,CrucifixionOf the innocent self,Cast out as devils. The sensual dreamReveals another truth,Preaches a different redemption.Dare to sailIts archetypal seas,Steering by Venus,Your landfall at lastA truly selfless shore.
The creek
We choose leaves carefully, the kind very green and glossy on one side light bouncing and bouncing off them. White on the other, midveins clear, veins clear, and in the curl, of their own accord they curl, we place three petals say, or 14 seeds, or an earwig. And now as evening falls we tear […]