Tightrope

Selina Tusitala Marsh

• Publisher: Auckland University Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781869408725
• eBook ISBN: 9781775589518
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

Built around the abyss, the tightrope, and the trick that we all have to perform to walk across it, Pasifika poetry warrior Selina Tusitala Marsh brings to life in Tightrope her ongoing dialogue with memory, life and death to find out whether 'stories' really can 'cure the incurable'. In Marsh's poetry, sharp intelligence combines a focused warrior fierceness with perceptive humour and energy, upheld by the mana of the Pacific.

II

tightrope

Unity

(written and performed for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,
Westminster Abbey, 2016)

Maluna a‘e o nā lāhui apau ke ola ke kanaka
‘Above all nations is humanity’ – Hawaiian proverb

Let’s talk about unity

here in London’s Westminster Abbey

did you know there’s a London in Kiritimati?

Republic of Kiribati, Pacific Sea.

We’re connected by currents of humanity

alliances, allegiances, histories

for the salt in the sea, like the salt in our blood

like the dust of our bones, our final return to mud

means though 53 flags fly for our countries

they’re stitched from the fabric of our unity

it’s called the Va in Samoan philosophy

what you do, affects me

what we do, affects the sea

land, wildlife – take the honeybee

nature’s model of unity

pollinating from flower to seed

bees thrive in hives keeping their queen

unity keeps them alive, keeps them buzzing

they’re key to our fruit and vege supplies

but parasitic attacks and pesticides

threaten the bee, then you, then me

it’s all connected – that’s unity.

There’s a ‘U’ and an ‘I’ in unity

costs the earth and yet it’s free.

My grandad’s from Tuvalu and to be specific

it’s plop bang in the middle of the South Pacific

the smallest of our 53 Commonwealth nations

the largest in terms of reading vast constellations

my ancestors were guided by sky and sea trails

and way before Columbus even hoisted his sails!

What we leave behind matters to those who go before

we face the future with our backs, sailing shore to shore

for we’re earning and saving for our common wealth

a common strong body, a common good health

for the salt in the sea, like the salt in our blood

like the dust of our bones, our final return to mud

means saving the ocean, saving the bee

means London in the UK seeing Ronton in the South Seas

and sharing our thoughts over a cuppa tea

for there’s a ‘U’ and an ‘I’ in unity

costs the earth and yet it’s free.

!

(a back-translation of ‘Unità’, translated into Italian by Francesca Benocci)

When I quit kneeling by the Western abacus

New Zealand became obedient in story

percolating the sale of air and crying

come sail the sanguine sea!

Come, laugh, pulverise delicatessens

of cheeses, mangoes and estranged lovers

just be sure never to fia sio in Samoa

its charismatic volcanoes

will see-saw swing to your talking ear

its mountains and fountains shape

domestic scenes leaping prosperously

into the verb village valley, vast and regal.

We’ll unite the mountains in winter, villagers said

keep the mountains in rotation

so they channel nostalgic

reservoirs of verdant fruit

may attention to pesticides and parasites

not prime us for the sun’s cold pit

they understand everything in the college

of eco-united – it costs magnificent gratitude.

My no one in Tuvalu

adds essence to mulato

fabrications lying

on atolls of pacification.

Pews in the church of Oceania

have maggots, termites. In letters of constellations

the mewling of cheaters combine aches and pens

they are molten prime numbers anchored

with passionate stares quell your lascivious

diet of colour and vengeance, the rest

a guardian to all universal schisms

vanquishing coast after coast.

Respond to me, nuzzle and come closer

for you commune with corpses of saints

who dance robust perfumed salsas

over the stage in comfort zones

that pulverise and ossify mangoes

and seagulls, these signify the salvation

of the ocean, the salvation

of domestic spaces.

If you read nothing, you love n...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• I Abyss
• II Tightrope Unity
• III Trick
• Notes
• Copyright Page