Saturday, May 28, 2005

Reo Maori Blues

(sung to Jackson Browne's Cocaine)

I watched primetime and Maori TV too
There's a big difference between the two
Reo Maori runnin' round my brain

It had kapa haka and hip hop shows
Ask Auntie almost anything goes
Reo Maori runnin' round my brain

First the powhiri followed by four
by the end I only wanted more
Reo Maori runnin' round my brain

Free classes at campuses on all shores
One downtown who could ask for more
Reo Maori runnin' round my brain

Before it was over I learned a few words
but the songs are all I heard
Reo Maori runnin' round my brain

Back in New Mexico withdrawal sets in
Reo Maori sets me to spin
Reo Maori runnin' round my brain

Hey, sister, you'd better come here quick
this Reo 'drawal 'bout to make me sick
Reo Maori runnin' round my brain

first night home

as I lay abed
in the distance the wailing whistle of a freight train
seeps through the thin cool air
familiar that sound
I recall dozens of other places
I have lived with the same soothing call

as the sun seeps through the barely opened window
warning of a new day
the who-who-whoing of a morning dove
from the depth of the sunshine
creeps sleepily in

outside
this sprawling desert city lumbers bearlike
to its feet
traffic flows steadily down Lead and
Coal in their respective one way directions
familiar flows still undisrupted
to downtown
away from downtown
away from the mountains
toward the mountains
glowing apple and watermelon
in front of the rising star

heart runs full

my heart runs full
like Hokianga Harbor
like Akarora Bay
Milford Sound
New Brighton Beach
Raglan
during high tide at a full moon

my heart sings
like a Te Matatini festival
like a Maori Anglican church service
like a kapa haka practice
in Raglan
and Christchurch
like a waiata at a Maori graduation
like a waiata at a kura kaupaapa
like a waiata at Ngaa Peka Maatauranga

my heart reflects the joy
of the haka
of the powhiri at a marae
te waananga
kura kaupaapa
kohunga reo

my eyes shine like the stars on a clear night
in Opononi
in Raglan at a Fulbright friend's bach
like the eyes of the children
because of the child who hung out a school window
and shouted--hello George Ann Gregory
still my favorite acknowledgement of fame
because of my colleagues of Te Whare Waananga o Waitaha

my heart beats with the ebbs and flows of a far away ocean tide
with the voices of the Kai Tahu of Dunedin
with the voices of a small Maori Anglican Church
with the voices of children
asking me--what kinds of animals do you have
what was the plane ride like
with the stories of Maori
and one Moriori
a talented moko maker
with the guitar strokes of waiata
makers young and old

now my heart lies
forever encircled
by the entertwining of the fern
and the feather