Tui
“Your Heart A Rubus Shelter”
I
Sheltering Rubus
Strands of Poa grass
Moss of stones &
Down of fern root
Spray of slender twigs
Purple Konini
Kahikatea berry
Miro plum
Your heart a Rubus shelter
& the colour of your Aroha
Konini, Kahikatea & Miro
II
She sings from the Kahikatea nested in many lifetimes
through the ancestors of Rehua. Shaken from his hair, tumbling
into the hands of Tāne and the people
She sings like the ages were moments just passed
My blood swam backward in my veins: Heart shape-shifts
eyes & mouth wet; toes become claws &
wings cleave free of bone and I soar within her song,
higher ever higher, never to reach Rehua’s heaven:
Te Putahi-nui-o-Rehua
I soar within her voice, as man-bird-soul.
My death & belonging. She is the gift of Rehua
I awaken to her song
III
Aerial worker
musical stalker
Phantom talker
buried water
Beyond his song
Rubus shelter,
rabble skelter
Hanging man
bloodied marauder
Beyond his chortle
Shaken hair
sacred feast
Nectar fool
Karo bloom
Beyond the Pa
the sky breaks
IV
Reach out
Stretch out
Break off the ripe tirori 
Stretch out
Reach out
To my waxing mouth
Miromiro
“Haere Mai e Ipo”
I
Twirl, twirl
Twist& dive
Dart & dip
Torotoro
Homiromiro
Ngirungiru
Twirl, twirl
Curl & jive
Swirl & flip
Aitu, Atahu
Maui Potiki
Hurihuri
Twirl, twirl
Twist & rise
Keen & quick
II
I touch your neck
with my Taiaha blade
run my fingers along the
fringe of your korowai
Imitating the chirrup of birds
I kill one, taking it hand
recite this charm
Haere mai e ipo
Sweetheart Come
Haere mai e ipo
Sweetheart Come
My Ātahu rest upon
Your sacred head
May it call to your heart
Influence your desire
to come, return to me
I shall rest in your heart
Haere mai e ipo
Sweetheart Come
Haere mai e ipo
Sweetheart Come
III
Haere tāku miromiro
Look beyond the black
Bring me home my lover
Bring my lover back
Haere tāku miromiro
scout the muddy track
Bring me home my lover
Bring my lover back
Pipiwhararoa
“A Journey Carried In Our Heart”
I
When we reunite we cry,
our eyes, drooping flax flower
our tears, falling honey shower
Hawaiki, the journey carried in our heart
Each single heart & blood lines migration
Generation to generation
Listening to the singing scales of Va
before Tagaloa-a-lagi split the stone
unimpeded by gravity, the thin ear
Life then is a journey,
from Hawaiki to Hawaiki:
The Great Hawaiki
Long Hawaiki
Hawaiki Far Away
II
A single white pebble sates thirst
over many long miles.
Hawaiki to Melanesia,
Viti to Samoa,
Southwest to, Tahiti,
Cook Islands, Aotearoa.
South to the abundance of insects & sun.
Falling into your arms, tears fall
like the drooping harakeke flower.
The sun refracts all sorrow to a rainbow.
colours shift in form, creating omens.
In death we return, Hawaiki to Hawaiki
III
Gogo’sina, my love, save us from the light
Our stories live, spiral ever forward, ever back
Gogo’sina, my love, high on an updraft
journey to the infinite pouliuli
Gogo’sina recite the story of my Aiga
the high chief Tuailemafua o Safune, Savaii
Gogo’sina, on my death, will I be shrouded
in the fine mat, laid to rest upon loto fanua
Blow low notes, forever within my heart
until we meet again in the children
