Sailing To The Island. Poem by Michael Walker

The ferry from Auckland to Waiheke
takes only about half an hour.
On the top, windy deck on a clear day
I could make out Great Barrier Island
outlined on the distant horizon.
Great Barrier, where I had that holiday
and met a friendly Taiwan family.
Strangers at first sight,
there were soon no barriers.


Today the ferry berthed at Oneroa wharf
close to town where I strolled at random
until I chanced on an edition of Ginsberg's poems.
The slim book had the poem's text on one page
and black and white drawings on the facing one.
Right away I was taken by Allen's long lines
going right across the page, overflowing;
and his long complex sentences minus punctuation.
I had not read such stanzas by any New Zealand poet.


As the bus to Palm Beach negotiated hills
I read 'Howl', a long poem in three sections.
It begins, ' I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by
madness...' and ends with a talk to his friend
who is a patient in Rockland hospital,
'Carl Solomon! I'm with you in Rockland
where you're madder than I am'...
'I'm with you in Rockland
where we are great writers on the same dreadful
typewriter'. The bus arrived just then at Palm Beach
where I would swim for hours in its warm waters of escapism.

- 15 February,2019.