A Hui Hou

Some rights reserved by sshreevesA full year passed without seasons

The slow going holoholo

Life on an island

Masking the true flight of time

I lived between

A swamp and the sea

Squatting on middle ground

Beneath a shield of mountains

Straight up ma uka I’d stare

After windward rains

Hoping for hundreds of waterfalls

Tumbling down green-walled gorges

And once I did see them

More often ma kai I’d stroll

Bathing in living memories

Sun trances of cerulean beauty

Waxy greens and feather sands of Kalama

Still the sea waves gave way

Untouched pools lured me

To trudge through the swamp

To rise among mountains

Yellow beaked mynahs taunted

Red-crested cardinals called

Promised dusky oranges

Backlights to mountain sunsets

I saw them mystic every time

The beach is lokahi

Waves heal in breezes

Under long tides of sun

Broken softly by passing showers

Drifting clouds collect ma uka

Mountains bear wet heavy crowns

Sought by the birds and the way seekers

That inch towards transcendence  

Sadly I will leave this ‘aina

To mālama older valleys and rivers

But it’s not for me to say what could have been

Only that behind my future Kalama smiles

I may never see her again

But should I return, meet me ma uka

Past ancient stones and guardian footsteps

Up up the steep pali ridge

Hiking back to where Ke Akua lives

Comments

[Anonymous]

This is beautiful

[Tango Mangio]

This made me cry.

[Egg lady]

Beautiful!

[Patrick Edmonds]

Amazing work! It's fascinating how much of an impact such places of beauty can have on our spirits, memories, and words. You evoke the transcendentalist belief in the power of our natural surroundings and do great justice to Thoreau himself.
"Let us first be as simple and well as Nature ourselves, dispel the clouds which hang over our brows, and take up a little life into our pores." -Walden

[James Dugan]

"But it’s not for me to say what could have been." I love this line. It is not for us to say when it rains or what mountains should rise or when journeys begin or end, that is for the Gods and their pleasure. We just climb sharing in this wonderful natural treasure. I loved how you mixed the languages. Well done!
Great lunch.

[James Dugan]

Wait. When did Edmonds start reading Walden?

[Leum]

Wonderful, Nick. Your grasp of the native Hawaiian and freedom to thrive between what is a touching past and a bountiful now and future is moving.

Leum