Pact for Mother and Teen-ager - Fiona Kidman

Pact for Mother and Teen-ager - Fiona Kidman

Girl, we've quarrelled
in a motel in a strange town.
It's 2am and tomorrow
I'm due to drive north all day
on the holiday we've planned
this six months past.
If you were a lover,
I'd have thrown you out;
if you were your father,
I might have had a bitter-sweet
reconciliation. But as you are
my child, I watch you sleep
tangled in bedsheets and tearstains,
and try to plan the shortest way
out of town.





(2007). D. O'Meara (Ed.), Voices of the Pacific: A poetry resource Auckland: Pearson Education.

Word of Te Whiti - Barry Mitcalfe

Word of Te Whiti - Barry Mitcalfe

'He whenua te waiu whakatupu nga tamariki'
Land is the sustenance of the children.

All flesh is grass
And the price of this land is blood
But the land has not the value of one person

Guns and powder are no protection
For with guns and powder the pakeha
Would make us pay the price

There was a time for action
But this day is the day of the spirit
The spirit will live and the action die

If anyone thinks of horse and gun
By horse and gun will he perish
And those who flee will fall

The canoe which will save us all
Is forbearance. No matter to us what happens
Now is the glory and peace upon the land

Let us abide by the land
Let the booted feet come
The land shall stay firm forever.




(2007). D. O'Meara (Ed.), Voices of the Pacific: A poetry resource Auckland: Pearson Education.

To a boy climbing the cenotaph the day after ANZAC day - Kathleen Henderson

We will remember them.


To a boy climbing the cenotaph the day after ANZAC day - Kathleen Henderson

You are used to war. Oh child
You see it daily on your TV screen
The Bullet hits
A spurt of technicolor blood
A body reels and falls before your eyes
You do not feel the pain
Or see the paper poppies draining red
After the heavy rain
You do not see that woman
Bending low to touch that card of memory
On a wreath of white and yellow flowers
And understand she thinks of son
Or lover
You do not know or care
Or if you do
It's like the passing flicker of the picture show
Where tears are cheap
And danger is not death
A gun to you is something that you point at friends
And shout
Bang! Bang! You're dead
While you play hide and seek
Behind the weathered warriors of stone
You do not see a woman with her tears
Or see the paper poppies draining red
After the heavy rain





(2007). D. O'Meara (Ed.), Voices of the Pacific: A poetry resource Auckland: Pearson Education.

Ru-au-moko - Hone Tuwhare

Ru-au-moko - Hone Tuwhare

Traveller
if you go by way of
Wai-o-hau
do not linger where
the dark gorge broods

Move on
Do not eat or drink there
nor stop to fish the turbulence
of the snarled river-bed for eels;
potato plants, swirling.

Pause
by the broke ngaio tree
and in your own hard fashion
three times curse him

Within the shattered bluff
with rocks on cubed rocks piling
Ru-au-moko* sleeps

Swear hard at him traveller
for your good luck:
his lullaby and appeasement




*Ru-au-moko - Maori god of Earthquakes



(2007). D. O'Meara (Ed.), Voices of the Pacific: A poetry resource Auckland: Pearson Education.

Time of Day - Barry Crump

Time of Day - Barry Crump

At that time of day
when the world turns away form the sun
and the last traces of sunlight
are gone from the ridgetops,
I lead my old horse down a wild river valley
with two trout in the split sack
behind the saddle.

Around the bend I see great wires
strung swooping from pylon to pylon
across the sky.

And I wonder how come
it makes that moment of sadness
waft through my thoughts,
and puts that mournful note
in the cry of the putangitangi*



*Putangitangi - Paradise Duck



(2007). D. O'Meara (Ed.), Voices of the Pacific: A poetry resource Auckland: Pearson Education.

Broad Bay - Kim Eggleston

Broad Bay - Kim Eggleston

Sometimes when the light is slow down
the hill from the castle and the sea
is hammering at the heads

I walk across the hill
to where the albatross lives
and watch the sea bite the land

Sometimes when the light is slow
and the sea is flat
floundering in the mud

We wonder should we leave
or stay on the verandah and smoke
another cigarette

The fine net falls either way
as it does when you're arguing
about a jersey and you've

already got your coat on.



(2007). D. O'Meara (Ed.), Voices of the Pacific: A poetry resource Auckland: Pearson Education.

Waitangi Day, Porirua - Vivenne Plumb

Waitangi Day, Porirua - Vivenne Plumb

The best place to be on Waitangi
Day is Porirua, and I gaze
up, and the clouds right above me have
elongated themselves, so they resemble
ribs, and I look out as if I am
inside the body. Tahi, rua,
two moons in one small month and they are
calling them blue. Paua fritters three
dollars, big yellow blow-up bouncy
castle, flax bangles, sausage on a
stick, watermelon, eight guys in a
waka on the still lagoon. Bhuja.
An Indian woman sells me bhuja.
Porirua reggae is the best.
It is Bob Marley's birthday, stir it
up little darlin. The men wearing
lava lava beat the drums, the kids
jump in the fountain, hangi be quick
only four dollars for a good feed.




(2007). D. O'Meara (Ed.), Voices of the Pacific: A poetry resource Auckland: Pearson Education.

Under Mangere Mountain - David Eggleton

Under Mangere Mountain - David Eggleton

The Indian greengrocer smiles,
a Bombay movie star
amongst his deep-red watermelons
orange blistered tangelos
rain-washed sun-kissed mangos.
Peaches cling together.
Steam rises from the concrete curves of airport
motels,
From shower-soaked market gardens.
Cars nose like fish

through the humid air.
The ocean-blue sky unfurls creamy reefs of
cloud.
Gentle breezes off the fresh salt spray
sweep across the isthmus.
Leaves are emerald geckos doing acrobatics.
The jelly-green hill quivers.


(2007). D. O'Meara (Ed.), Voices of the Pacific: A poetry resource Auckland: Pearson Education.

Auckland - Mua Stickson-Pua

Auckland - Mua Stickson-Pua

Auckland
your streets
are cold.
Auckland
multicultural
multiracial
city of the world.
Beneath
your respectability
a price has been paid.
There
is no housing crisis
unemployment
is not working
and black is not white.

Auckland
hungry people
eat out of rubbish bins
openly.
Auckland
supposed sedated
mental health clients
roam your streets
lost and unloved.

Auckland
a generation
of street people
are no longer
invisible.
Auckland
elderly beggars
leave their stench
of poverty and injustice.
A price has been paid
Auckland
your streets are cold.


(2007). D. O'Meara (Ed.), Voices of the Pacific: A poetry resource Auckland: Pearson Education.

The Fale - Apirana Taylor

The Fale - Apirana Taylor

(To my friend Iosefa)

The fale I think
is a beautiful house
because it's cool
you can sit there
and talk
and let the wind
wash over you
and cool you
you can see the stars
and night sky

I like that
because in my world
the wind talks
the river talks
the tribes of rock and stones talk
because they are people
and the stars sing karakia

In the fale
I can breathe and communicate
because it's a house
without walls
and I sit here
drinking Vailima
learning about Samoa
and listening
to my mate Iosefa



(2007). D. O'Meara (Ed.), Voices of the Pacific: A poetry resource Auckland: Pearson Education.

Spirit of the land - Makiutii Tongia

Spirit of the land - Makiutii Tongia (Cook Islands)

This land is my home
where the naked mountains caress
the sky
and the veins of hills run to the sea.

This land is my home
where I'll live alone until
my hair grows white
and my bones grow old
then I'll hang my spirit on tree tops
to provide a cushion of coolness
for children who gather round
evening fires.



(2007). D. O'Meara (Ed.), Voices of the Pacific: A poetry resource Auckland: Pearson Education.