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.