Delivering the Thursday Poem

The Thursday Poem6 August 2020ONEKAKA – HILL & IRONOnekaka, Golden Bay. Old wharf, iron ore, the hall and vege stalls; artists, Mussel Inn, hills and mist, estuary, sun and gorgeous people. Sometimes you are born lucky! Sometimes the places and people who nurture us, need us to nurture them too. Video by Dr Jeff Obadiah Simmonds. Words below.Onekaka – hill & ironWill this place be mine,this Onekaka of hill and ironwhere the shrill quail callsand the dead leaves fall,a carpet for the forest floor,bare feet, and that is all, walkingon this road of clay and tarthat gently turns and makes it wayup to the scar upon the hillthat shows a face that only those who dare to climb will ever find this trace of Onekaka? What is known of this placethat stretches from the mountainto the sea, where the old wharf once used to be, where a woman paints iron crosses of crucifixion, as many as you need, while Onekaka rusts and bleeds,and we, in the dawn’s beacon fire,gather to quench our stories with black and golden beerand sing to the morepork’s cry until it is broken and silent there?Mark Raffills

Posted by Mark Raffills on Thursday, August 6, 2020