by tashmcgill | Dec 12, 2009 | New Zealand
Posts sitting in the drafts….
1. A New Way to Gather Together.
2. Why I’ll Probably Never Meet Don Miller.
But for now…
homeward bound for the six o’clock
cos there’s nowhere left to go
i have climbed every hill on the path
taken every detour
still I’m unsatisfied
and i’ll be seeing you again
for the first time in some months
will you still want to know my name?
and what I did today?
where I’m going to – who could say
i don’t think anybody knows
except to say I’m homeward bound
back to the anchor of the blue pacific
back to the land i left behind
and all the faces there
all the roads i know so well
still I’m unsatisfied
and i’ll be seeing you again
for the first time in some months
will you still want to know my name?
and what I did today?
where I’m going to – who could say
i don’t think anybody knows
except to say I’m homeward bound
by tashmcgill | Jul 28, 2009 | New Zealand
Years ago, there was a poet who wrote his one-off pieces in fine black marker on the inside of used soymilk cartons and sold them. He signed all his works ‘Noodle*’.
I had some favourites – two of them have sat in my favourite things pile for some time – because of their rich images and the words that describe this land of my birth. So here they are for you.
Noodle disappeared. I’d like to know what happened to him.. or if anyone else collected his pieces the same way I did.
FLYING DREAMS
Simple days are dreaming
Relax there’s no more scheming
The now is all consuming
Once you’ve caught the flow
The city is a pool
To which the river eddies
A tributary to the larger stream
That will help you when you leave
And confusion is a drowning
Whereas floating is a keeping
You’re (sic) spirit will only surface
If you keep from breathing fear
So like the Tui is learning
The lesson is in letting
Go of expectation
And becoming one with air
MORNING DISHES
The Matakana Hills
Bowl around like any other
Dish of countryside
Sitting next to
The Sandspit Harbor jug
The Plate of Warkworth Manor
The Colander of Dome Valley
Set amongst the cutlery of
Roads and teaspoon tracks
I’m reminded of your kitchen
And the dishes in your sink
by tashmcgill | Jul 5, 2009 | New Zealand
This is a poem that speaks of the beauty of this land, the song of the tui.. which you can listen to here.
Song Of The Tui
Suppose, sweet eyes, you went into a distant country
Where these young islands are nothing but a word;
Suppose you never came back again by Terawhiti:
Would you remember and be faithful to your bird?
And when they boasted there of thrushes, larks and linnets,
Would you hold up a stubborn little hand,
And say: “Not so! I know a sweeter singer
Than any bird that cries across your land!”
Would you, remembering, tell them of the Tui?
Wild, wild and blinding in its wildest note.
They – they never heard him, swinging on a flax–flower,
Mad with the honey and the noon in his throat.
They say that in the old days stately rangatiras
Slit his tongue, and made him speak instead of sing;
We would rather see him shining and gold–dusted,
From a morning kowhai flinging wide the spring.
So, my little sweet eyes, if you go a–sailing
Out beyond Pencarrow, and come not again,
Hold unto the southlands in the pure October,
When the Tui’s sweetness ripples through the rain.
— Eileen Duggan
by tashmcgill | Apr 26, 2009 | New Zealand
Important things that I would like to do sometime soon or at least have done once…
I’d love your thoughts – whether you were born here, live here or once lived here.
1. Get a new tattoo, something that symbolizes the next phase of life, one year on from Eastercamp and moving into a new sense of who I am.
2. Drive north to Cape Reinga and watch the sunset over the point.
3. Get one of these. (The tshirt, not Rhys, although he’s a good mate.) MrVintage has a great collection of Kiwiana tshirts.
4. Matakana Markets & Movies is a must.
5. Sunset beach picnic with New Zealand wine, cheese and seafood at Piha.
6. A dawn parade on Anzac Day, in front of the War Memorial Museum, to remember our past. At the setting of the sun and in the morning – we will remember them. Their blood is taonga, as their courage, honour & justice. Aue.
