A poem by Maori writer Hone Tuwhare (1922-2008)

Hotere: Out the Black Window. Ralph Hotere’s Work with New Zealand Poets. Auckland Art Gallery / Toi o Taamaki, 4 July – 9 September.

I can hear you
making small holes
in the silence
rain.

Rain. It started early that morning: dark, blustery rain. As I drove to meet Hone Tuwhare in Grey Lynn, where he was staying until the Montana Book Awards ceremony (his latest collection, Shape-shifter, won the poetry section this year), I could barely see the other cars on the road. They skidded along, each in their own halo of spray.

But if I
should not hear
smell or feel or see
you

you would still
define me
disperse me
wash over me

Hone Tuwhare, one of New Zealand’s most celebrated poets, was born in Northland, in the Hokianga, in 1922. His 1964 book No Ordinary Sun was the first ever published by a Maori poet. The title-poem, about the effects of nuclear testing in the Pacific, is the subject of another memorable painting in Hotere’s exhibition. Read more >>

Source: The Imaginary Museum: i. m. Hone Tuwhare (1922-2008)
Address : http://mairangibay.blogspot.nl/2008/01/i-m-hone-tuwhare-1922-2008.html
Date Visited: 21 April 2021

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