Monday 8 March 2021

 Kia ora ki katoa [Greetings to all].

Cornered by Coronavirus here in Aotearoa New Zealand, I wonder if any other Flying Islands contributors are Kiwi and might wish to share a reading, even if it is via Zoom...? Looks like we will be here for a while, despite escape plans being drawn...

Meanwhile a poem to warm everyone up, eh.

good old summer

summer

came back

with

a  HUGE  grin

s  p  r  e  a  d  e  a  g  l  e  d

all over its face;

a panjandrum

paintbrush

of lucent hues

imbued

with emollient

flourish.

 

its chortling

prodigal sun

flayed us all

i

n

t

o

happy    submission -

skin peeling,

smiles reeling,

balmy healing,

    &

a sort of

ubiquitous

mellow cadence

crooning through us all -

that winters’

frigid

casuistry

had  forced  us

to  forget.




                                    My daughter Pauline Canlas Wu - in Hong Kong - is the artist.


Te pai katoa [All the best].

Vaughan Rapatahana

1 comment:

  1. in summer go under whole skies of grass

    by leaf go
    collect against the drought

    and someone to the top of a blade
    abandoned to the bottle, swim

    briefly, with the stars now
    conjure
    make dust or mud to suit

    come wings
    none least
    but all to skin

    ceaseless expansion

    trip or traipse
    bite, sting

    in summer beside
    midnight in

    slothly
    peel me
    moisten

    and place me under languorous fan
    in shades

    too bright the year when new

    all running repairs
    light blessings

    fire fearful in the darkest
    and briefly briefly

    day from the nearly south now

    in not-a-prayer for shade or breeze

    forage in summer when everything grows

    it’s all cicada-say
    and frogsong till first up

    dress lightly
    if at all

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