Matariki [maori New Year] Poem by Keith Shorrocks Johnson

MAORI NEW YEAR - THE SEVEN SISTERS RISE ANEW

Our birth-folk
Sky and earth
Together and apart
Grief and yearning
Heaving and strain.

Their children
The woodlands
And the seas
The winds and waves
The food stores
War and stillness.

Though the young struggle
With storms and snares,
The dark and emptiness
Are overcome by light and growth
And the sky is clothed in stars.

Get ready for the westerly
Stand fast for the southerly
It will be icy white inland
And icy cold on the shore.

May the dawn rise
Red-tipped
On snow, on frost

The breath of life!


POWHIRI

At the island's edge
The warrior-waves
Swell and break
In unison
And the shore
Picks up the challenge.

Across the strait
Are distant mountains,
Arrayed like wise chiefs
Capped with heron feathers,
Snow-shone with white flame,
Welcoming us to the winter solstice.