Poems from Ora Nui

Ora Nui is a brand new biennial Maori literary journal which I wrote about last month.
Editor Anton Blank has kindly agreed to letting me publish two poems that especially appealed to me from this first issue. Here they are for your enjoyment.

Without words

At times, I fall into a

well of sadness.  All

the words recede.  The

light pouring through the

window pales.  I find it

hard to talk.  The fridge

grows empty, & then

I forget to eat.  I forget

how to talk.  Language

grates against me like

a splintered wall.  All

the words fall down

in shards.  In the middle

of the night, instead of

sleeping, I work to piece

them together.  They say,

“I am.”  They say,

“Listen to me.”

Kiri Piahana-Wong is a New Zealander of Ngati Ranginui (Maori), Chinese and Pakeha (English) ancestry. She has published her work widely in journals and anthologies in New Zealand and Australia, including Mauri Ola: Contemporary Polynesian Poems in English, The NZ Poetry Society Anthology 2008, Livelines 2 & 3, Bravado, Blackmail Press, JAAM, Sidestream, Snorkel, The Lumiere Reader and Trout. Kiri is also a performance poet, and an MC at Poetry Live, NZ's longest-running live poetry venue.

Mumble

Like someone talking in their sleep

I mumble when I speak

and get a bit of cheek

They say "Munro dont be shy

Be yourself"

and other cliches like

"you need to break outta that shell"

Well I would if I knew how

But instead I get a shakey voice

at the sound of no noise

Gotta make my words clear

so that everyone can hear

Or just use the drawing way

to say what I gotta say

because I gotta be true to myself

for the sake of everybody else

who get to listen to me fumble

with words that I mumble

in a language not my own

Yet the only one I know

Munro Te Whata (Niue, Ngati Porou, Nga Puhi) has lived in South and West Auckland most of his life. He is trained in classical animation, and has been working in the animation industry since he was eighteen years old. He has worked on a number of television shows including Bro’town and Maori Television’s Korero Ki Nga Kararehe. Munro is currently freelancing and studying creative writing at Manukau Institute of Technology.