Puna Wai Korero

An Anthology of Maori Poetry in English

Robert Sullivan, Reina Whaitiri, Robert Sullivan, Reina Whaitiri

• Publisher: Auckland University Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781869408176
• eBook ISBN: 9781775587477
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

From revered, established writers as well as exciting new voices, the poems in Puna Wai Korero offer a broad picture of Maori poetry in English. The voices are many and diverse: confident, angry, traditional, respectful, experimental, despairing, and full of hope, expressing a range of poetic techniques and the full scope of what it is to be Maori. There are poems from all walks of life and modes of writing: laments for koro and hopes for mokopuna, celebrations of the land and anger at its abuse, retellings of myth and reclamations of history. Puna Wai Korero collects work from the many iwi and hapu of Aotearoa as well as Maori living in Australia and around the world, featuring the work of Hone Tuwhare, J. C. Sturm, Trixie Te Arama Menzies, Keri Hulme, Apirana Taylor, Roma Potiki, Hinemoana Baker, Tracey Tawhiao and others – as well as writers better known for forms other than poetry such as Witi Ihimaera, Paula Morris, and Ngahuia Te Awekotuku.

REWA WORLEY

Rewa Palliser Worley is a young poet of Pākehā and Māori descent, ‘nō Ngāpuhi me Ngāti Porou’. He began writing poetry seriously after his involvement in the Rising Voices Poetry Slam 2012, created by Grace Taylor and Jai MacDonald. He is a member of the Waxed Poetic Revival, and is currently working on a Master’s thesis that involves spoken word poetry and its relationship to well-being.

The separation

In kōhanga reo,

the language nest

when I was still small maybe three or four

they told all of us,

the children who listened,

the story of how our world was made

and in it,

the void, Te Kore,

an empty silhouette of what would be

filled its emptiness with the essence of the night,

Te Pō-tahuri-mai-ki-taiao.

Time and distance spiralling down its spine

leaving dreams and ripples of what may come In Its memory

and reaching its depths,

casting from this womb’s lips

the star-crossed lovers,

Ranginui the sky father and the earth Papatūānuku beneath him

kissed into existence,

side by side

and their love was one

without time or limits,

there was no line where one began and the other finished,

wrapped in the dark by a shroud,

a cloak, that bound them so close

that as they slept he would breathe her breath

as she felt his chest move up,

and down, against hers

Filling his lungs with the taste of her dust,

just long enough,

to give it back again.

And once

as if ploughing through a field

he would plant their son,

a Seed, Tāne, the Forest.

But in need of space and sun,

sprouting out from my mother

my legs like tree trunks,

my feet branching into the sky as I

pushed away at my father,

so that the light and cold could stream into the space between.

Separation must have been hard for them,

divorce is not something we like to talk about.

Even now,

I still see my father sometimes

in a world of his own

his head, somewhere in the clouds

and even though I never saw it I knew from the look in his eyes

like the colours in the sunset

that he had shed and cried tears for that he had lost.

Like a myth, or a legend

a story I never forgot.

(2012)

SELECT GLOSSARY

āe	expression of agreement or assent
ahi kā	home-burning fres signifying rights of occupation
ake; ake, ake, ake	upwards, away; forever and ever
akeake	a small tree with long, sometimes reddish leaves
āmine	amen
Aotea	Taranaki waka, especially connected to Pātea
Aotearoa	New Zealand, ‘long white world/land’
ara	pathway; to rise up, ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• Dedication
• Introduction
• Apirana Ngata
• Hiria Anderson
• Te Awhina Arahanga
• Hinemoana Baker
• Roimata Baker
• Hilary Baxter
• Arapera Hineira Blank
• Marino Blank
• Pearl De Vere Boyed
• Bub Bridger
• Ben Brown
• Tania Hinehou Butcher
• Jacq Carter
• Samuel Cruickshank
• Harry Dansey
• Shelly Davies
• Henare Dewes
• Kim Eggleston
• Amber Esau
• Rangi Faith
• Miria George
• Marewa Glover
• Briar Grace-Smith
• Rowley Habib (Rore Hapipi)
• Aroha Harris
• John Hovell
• Keri Hulme
• Witi Ihimaera
• Sam Jackson
• Phil Kawana
• Hinewirangi Kohu
• Paula Kora
• Robin Kora
• Dora Roimata Langsbury
• Marama Laurenson
• Katerina Mataira
• Abigail Mcclutchie
• Larissa Mcmillan
• E Te Arama Menzies
• Kelly Ana Morey
• Paula Morris
• Justine Murray
• Deirdre Nehua
• Moana Nepia
• Michael O’leary
• Tru Paraha
• Evelyn Patuawa-Nathan
• Pare Paul
• Kiri Piahana-Wong
• Brian Potiki
• Roma Pōtiki
• Maraea Rakuraku
• Vaughan Rapatahana
• Jean Riki
• Reihana Robinson
• Te Kahu Rolleston
• Zane Scarborough
• Kate Shaw
• Michael Stevens
• Bruce Stewart
• Georgina Stewart
• J.C. Sturm
• Robert Sullivan
• Chris Tamaiparea
• Tracey Tawhiao
• Apirana Taylor
• Ngahuia Te Awekotuku
• Alice Te Punga Somerville
• Norman Te Whata
• MahināRangi Tocker
• Hone Tuwhare
• Tracy Watson
• Reina Whaitiri
• Haare Williams
• Vernice Wineera
• Briar Wood
• Rewa Worley
• Acknowledgements
• About the editors
• Copyright Page
• Footnote