NB 5.

Repetition With.

sky the colour of an eye

  sea the colour of a broken promise

sand the colour of sand

  bird the colour of a dropped glove.


clouds of warm steam



  buoy the colour of happiness

boat the colour of gravy

  rocks the colour of a bad temper

reef the colour of broken teeth


  sea and be seen



  shells the colour of bone

wood the colour of a lost dog

  trees the colour of a wish

earth the colour of ash


  to have been.

NB 4.

Murder.

It's a townies idea of a wilderness

A gate and a track you can drive a truck down

Navigated engineered and dammed


Except in spring when the kowhai forest flowers

Chrome yellow under cobalt blue

And flocks of tui wheel and rattle

Drunk on nectar.


Quiet compared to Karanga a Hape road

Where big cars boom and rattle

And the flock are drunk on rum and party

Under cadmium light


One with a dam in his head, cutting the flow

Of love producing an issue, still borne.

A jigsaw puzzle


Solved by disposal, beyond the light

In the tangle of supple jack and bush lawyer

Watched by the owl.


Exposed by the dawn to no one

Turning sweet nature into forbidden land

Waiting for redemption.

NB3

NB2. (Harakeke, Ti, Manuka)

Field Notes.

The sky caught in the ruts of the reef

Black shag drying on a shipwrecked tree trunk

Prehistoric cry of herons.



Small wooden footbridge over creek

Carving in the clay

Pool to rill to pool to fall


Monument.

Sun lighting the forest like a spoon

Cutting the top off an egg



Mushroom flesh over wet green moss

Thin muscular lancewood with insect fingers

Low sun on a short day



The luxury of the plateau

Highlit textures and saturated colour

Sacred niche in the forest



The indifference of the far off traffic.