‘He protected the settlers from the Maori’SettlersInvading Maori landsShowing no respectKeeping no wordBreaking loreBetraying all ‘You see your new homeland for the first time’Which is someone else’s homeWhich you were not invited to visitWhich your government took with lies and violenceYou step ashore ecstatic to be aliveIgnorant of who stepped ashore before ‘The inter-tribal fightingContinue reading “Whiteout at Te Papa Tongarewa”
City
The towers are short and somewhat stubbyThey haven’t the money to build like JapanTowers fingering at the cloudsClouds flowing about the tips of buildings Look out the window!Not gray concrete and icy windowsGreen parks wet with rainAnd the clouds – the sky! – flows by close by. Mount the bike and peddle up the hillWhat’sContinue reading “City”
The Ethics of Silence
What you’re finding with all this side-liningis a dangerous repression ofrealityso stop your crying and just beminding your own business No one likes a cry baby and heywe all got our problems Shut your mouth and play by the rulesthe rulesthe rulesand say nothing scary Climbing outta the gravebeing bravemonsters lurking in your caveterrifyingyou back inContinue reading “The Ethics of Silence”
What’s something most people don’t understand? Themselves
Little Boy
40 years cycles repeat
In Between
Fight for diversity at your peril. Many people, regardless of skin colour or heritage, have vested interests in maintaining segregation. I am not one of them.Truth Telling. Dignity. Courage. I want these to be the defining characteristics of Australian society.
Lesson at the Yorkian
Luka Lesson takes the stage and you can already feelPages turning in his mind as he recites with powerThe ages we’ve waited to hear these lines Live it is with ‘May Your Pen Grace the Page’Delivered to the crowd they grow loud and cheerTo the rhymes that clear the message through the voices Ringing throughContinue reading “Lesson at the Yorkian”
Connected
Given the timeto produce a rhymesaying with grace andkeeping rhythm in time Find the path to say the ideasthat everyone hearsin their soulsthe vision sears Through the yearswe find new partsin our heartsand make new starts Making arttakes timewe sayit’s mine Me is on the pagegoing into your earand through your mindyou find Nothing queerbetweenContinue reading “Connected”
It’s 4am 4am 4am 4am it is…
It’s 4 in the morning and we copy a dull theme that became a memeA TED-sponsored presentation which bent the genre and the sender of the message circled back again and againThe laughter was fun until the third time was done and I became dumbFind a way to stay invested in the TED-tested my mindContinue reading “It’s 4am 4am 4am 4am it is…”
Tough Crowd
The cavernous chasm between the haves and the have nots and how we may bridge it.
A D R A N 