The Journey

(The Journey was first published in Vision, no. 13, April 2005 and provided the inspiration for a piece by composer Leonie Holmes commissioned for the Manukau City Symphony Orchestra and first performed at the opening of the TelstraClear Pacific Events Centre, Manukau City, 3 April 2005.)

Spirit breathes
One into many
One into many

A still cool dawn.
In the hush the first hint of a breeze
Shivers across the water.
Slowly the rim of the world lightens,
Dull-red blazing to white-gold.
Rising sonority of gull-murmur and spirit wings
As the day swells to radiance.

Sun rises higher and wind whirls
Contorted cloud forms that thrash and billow in fierce
Freedom, in time with the crash of sun-splintered surf
And the rhythmic slash of paddles
As the waka heads shorewards.
People come
People come

Now the wading bird must share his haunts
And the tui must tune his song to
The chant of Hoturoa paddling up the Tamaki,
Marvelling at bursts of scarlet on the shore,
Raucous bush and bountiful mudflats.
Aching blue and brilliant green,
People and land, sea and sky,
New-bonded.

Time passes. Sun slides west.
The tide fills in many footprints as
The voyaging canoes of a new age come and go.
Ebb and flow still lures Poaka the stilt over the isthmus.
Nightly his cry sounds from Tamaki to Manukau,
Though softer now,
Muffled by the roar of new imperatives.

Dusk comes. Light dims.
A criss-cross of black seal and concrete blocks
Grips the land.
Weary workers inch home,
Coloured beads on a black-tarred chain, fragmented,
Captives in their glass privacy,
Jarred by stop-go of brake-light
And sense of loss.

For beneath the wheels of commerce
And the grind of gears,
Beneath the tinsel talk and varied hues,
The mixing and matching, toing and froing,
Scream of siren and choking exhaust,
Beneath all this,
Ancient rhythms still vibrate in the memory.

Remember, Remember
Return, return

Dark now. Dark.
From somewhere a breeze stirs evening embers,
Caressing, coaxing.
Slowly an image forms,
Faint at first, then gaining substance:
An open space, a great gathering singing as one,
And a great welcoming, full of warmth and love.

From that vision bright sparks of hope
Ignite a compact of elements
Blended in the weave of ancient cycles.
Spirit braids threads of destiny
In shades of brown, white, black,
All knit by a red weft, pulsing and
Melding in the heart of a new tomorrow.

Rising sonority of gull-murmur and spirit wings
Vibrate in the dawn of a new day.
Light grows and cloud lifts,
Petals unfurl and the fern frond dips.
Slowly the rim of the world lightens,
Dull-red blazing to white-gold
As the day swells to radiance.

Many into one
Many into one

Domino Gloria

Author's note: The poem is set against a dawn-dusk-dawn sequence. These times represent the journey from early settlement to present day. It is a passage from a kind of primal innocence to a baser commercialism. Yet underneath this movement there is always the presence of spirit. The end represents a return to recognition of common bonds, a melding of diverse peoples; all part of the same natural setting.

A man-made, concrete symbol of this bond is the Events Centre itself.

The end, with echoes of the first stanza, represents a new beginning; hopefully, a growth in understanding of who we are.

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