"kauri" poems
Bayan ko, Bayan kung sinilangan
Saan ka ngayon matatagpuan
Kagandahan mo't perlas bakit lumagapak?
Bayan ko, Bayan ko tinalikuran kanang lahat.
Kalunos lunos na hagupit sa bayan ko'y sumapit
Pagkat mga kababayan ko
Sa salapi naaakit, tila wala nang malasakit sa Bayang nagigipit.
Wala na ang mga tunay na bayani, mga mapagbalat kayo tila naghahari.
Mga pangakong tila binaon sa kabaon.
Saan naba tayo ngayon?
Bayan kong tinatangi.
Paanu ba magagapi kung ang mananakop ay kauri.
Masdan mo silang mag hari
Ang Bayan ko'y naging isang malaking munti..
Nov 2, 2013
Nov 2, 2013 at 8:39 AM UTC
Kay tagal kong hinitay
Ang iyong mga salita
Ang iyong buhay
Na tila isang talata
Ng ibat ibang nobela
Na Sayo lahat nakakda
Ibat ibang istorya
Na iisa ang hiwaga
Sa pangalan mo kinuha
Ang milyong milyong diwata
Kauri mo ang mga tala
Kumikinang ng maganda
Isa kang panahon ng ginhawa
Katapusan ng kadiliman
Laging may kinabukasan
May 2, 2018
May 2, 2018 at 5:57 AM UTC
Have you ever stood,
craning your neck to look up into the canopy
of the ancient kauri, Tane Mahuta,
while peace and birdsong permeate your soul?
Have you ever felt
the crusty spray and the satanic whiff
as the Pohutu geyser shoots aloft
while a dozen languages bubble through te reo?
Have you ever shivered
in the receding darkness,
standing in the china-white sand as you waited
for the first sunrise over Makorori Beach?
Have you ever sat
on the summit of Mt Taranaki
and eaten a well-deserved sandwich
while cows grazed far below on the lush, volcanic-rich pasture?
Have you ever experienced
that mixture of fear and awe
as an orca’s dorsal breached beside your too-fragile kayak
in the shining waters of the Abel Tasman?
Have you ever paused
atop a ski run on Coronet Peak
and reflected on the reflections
of sunlight dancing on snow and water?
Have you ever felt sorry
for tourism chiefs and advertising creatives
trapped in offices in the Auckland CBD
dreaming up “100% Pure” and “Clean and Green”?
Feb 20, 2015
Feb 20, 2015 at 2:03 AM UTC
Lavender tints the sky of blue,
When the sun is gone the stars will be here for you.
Amongst the silk mist of the hills,
Is the frost that gives us the chills.
White horses jump into the sand,
As we are still bound to this land,
Some mysteries of this world we will never understand.
You see with new eyes,
Even though you could see before.
But now you have opened your mind,
You see so much more.
The fireflies floating by the creek,
When the wind comes the trees will speak.
The fairies come out to play,
When the night is gone they won't be here today.
A sliver rain falls from the sky,
Your deepest secret is now a lie.
I see it, in your eye
Under the stars at the start of a new year,
But when we looked up they started to disappear.
The king spirt will take avail,
Teardrops fall in my tin pale.
Leaves of the Kauri carpet the ground
I hope you look for what I have found
If no one hears it, is it a sound?
When gold has turned to green
Because you see all to be seen
Oct 29, 2011
Oct 29, 2011 at 7:08 AM UTC
so much time spent in forests
maybe it was natural to want these plains
of wheat, barley, rapeseed, concrete,
but then, we build cities
—we’re forest people still
after the cedar, the oak
after the oak, the pine,
after the pine, the palm, the kapok…
we’re good at turning things into names;
at coding the world, then remaking it:
we can cut an entire forest of kauri
into the image of San Francisco
Jun 11, 2015
Jun 11, 2015 at 7:47 AM UTC