Te Arikinui
Written many years before
the other poems, let this stand as interlude, prelude, or postludum. Let
the theme weave into our being as a healing song..
Earth mother,
through whom we enter
this world;
Hine Ahu One
womb of Papa
through whom do we return,
back to the maid of darkness,
through whom do we return?
lonely, in the bosom of the Earth,
to our mother who has left us
so that, in the end,
after long wandering
there should be one who loved us
waiting with embrace, with hongi
and a mite of food
warm, after our journey?
Poets and history speak,
longingly they speak,
of Kupe, and of Tane,
Hone Heke and Te Rauparaha.
Who speaks of Hine,
Te Atairanikaahu, Dame?
Princess of the past,
Te Puia
and ancient lovely women,
warriors and Queens,
their cleanness, and the holiness
of our first mothers
in this land.
Long may she stand
upon this sacred hill
shrilling sacred karanga
and screaming for her land,
her land
unreasonable, the ageing crone
of pitiful return,
of silver hatchets for Te Whenua !
O hear her words
before they die
shivering on fading air
hear, before we honour give
to gangs of tribes
who so abuse the daughters of the land
they fade
they die.
We know the secret of the herbs and tales
of Greek and Londoner
as well as home.
What grail is held within
the grasp of Maori Queens
and passed with Tahere and mere
to the waiting night
and what grave Tapu
lies across our land
And how shall we learn tenderness
and care for her
Our mother, who lacked sleep for us
and fed us from our birth?
and what give back
who kicked our chubby
child legs
upon her grass
and stepped first steps upon her belly
in the spring ?
