Awarua
One heron west from wary
shelter safe another sun turn
flower reed or home by other
sense to misty near beyond
his graveyard dreams I pass
between and harbours
double fill to shape were I
so shovelling petal hope to lock
our question in the former language.
Mining Lament
I went to see the golden hill
but it had all been mined away
all that's left is an empty bowl
of yellow gorse and rutted clay
But it had all been mined away
except a clay bluff topped with stone
in yellow gorse and rutted clay
one stubborn relic stands alone
Only a clay bluff tipped with stone
remains of the hill the painter saw
one stubborn relic stands alone
of a rounded hill of golden ore
Remains of the hill the painter saw
rutted clay and a stumbling stream
a rounded hill of golden ore
sluiced away with a sluicing gun
Rutted clay and a stumbling stream
all that's left is an empty bowl
sluiced away with a sluicing gun
I went to see the golden hill
(after a painting by Christopher Aubrey, Riverton)
April 2005
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