I was living in my little house-truck in a wet field in Kamo, and excited to meet the spoken word community of Whangarei, who had a night on at the local venue – The Butter Factory. I arrived an hour early, to realise that the evening was ‘Matariki themed’. I bought a pint, looked up what Matariki was, and wrote this poem to open my set.
Matariki
Matariki is the mother star, surrounded by her daughters
Or perhaps the eyes of god cast out in deep celestial waters
In the west we call them Pleaidies, four hundred light-years hence
But the mythology of the Maori hold our heats in tight suspense.
The father and the mother both lay cloaked in velvet gloom
In the time before time they embraced and danced around the lightless room
Children came, as children do, a growing family
Peace increasingly gave way to restless fidgitry
The teenage godlets wanted space, wanted the room to grow
Tane Mahuta stretched his muscles and tore up the status quo
He stood between his parents, and pushed with all his might
And finally his efforts helped to break the endless night
Rangi was so sad he cried to be parted from his beloved
His tears flowed in droves at this first grief e’er discovered
Tawhiri, Ariki of the winds had such a gentle soul
He couldn’t bear to watch this parting take such heavy toll
And so he clawed out his own eyes, and threw them far away
And come the harvest time, you can see them still today
They tell us when to reap and sow the farming calendar
They help the sailors navigate the oceans in their waka
This nebula of stars are close in interstellar distance
And at the turning of the year we give thanks for their assistance.
Joe Blogs 2019