Otata 46

Otata 46

  • before dawn

    before dawn

    stillborn day

    enlightenment
    awakens

    a cockroach scuttles

    to a drone attack

    from the glare

  • deep night vigil

    deep night vigil

    sounds within

    a flightless bird

    the sounds without

    rises within

    something slips
    in-between

  • flitter-winged

    flitter-winged

    in a blink

    a butterfly beyond

    the beginning of time

    our here & now

    pinpointed

  • Otaki Beach

    Otaki Beach

    mythic chant

    the cosmic silence

    stillness roaming about

    roaring within words

    lonely places

  • Silent Live Stream

     
    As I stroll along the banks of the Waikanae River, it becomes clear to me that the making of a poem is also the process of translating a pre-verbal phenomenon into an idiom that changes one's perception both of the phenomenon and of the language used to evoke it. Patterning words into poems has become for me an act of language-making that strains towards the unique utterance of what has hitherto been outside the apparent purview of language.
     
     
    a mosquito
    what is
    not yet
     
    leaps
    the length
    pierces
    my heart
    of our
    caresses
    with
    its absence
  • the art of haiku boils down to this

    the art of haiku boils down to this

    shadows

    a toothless old man

    emerging
    from the fog

    sucking marrow

    while light dies

    from the skeleton
    of words

  • to be

    to be

    not to be

    traces
    of swan-glide

    a tomorrow

    slashed in water

    that never ends

  • vespers

    vespers with

    ancient chants

    breath wisps of

    conjuring faith

    aspirations

    in my own tongue

  • winter ends

    winter ends

    lingering darkness

    my wisps
    of words

    magpies question

    to clouds,
    a bird

    the dawn chorus

  • wolf hour

    wolf hour

    drizzle-drench day

    black swans
    drift between

    cold
    cuts in keener

    sleep
    and non-sleep

    than a sword

  • words

    words
    which embody

    a universe

    our
    very selves

    edging to the precipice

    in screams
    of nowness

    where words
    wave back