Sunday, December 16, 2012

Darker Than Night

 
Painting by Colin McCahon

A PAIR OF SANDLES  
 - James K Baxter

A pair of sandals, old black pants
And leather coat – I must go, my friends,
Into the dark, the cold, the first beginning
Where the ribs of the ancestor are the rafters
Of a meeting house – windows broken
And the floor white with bird dung – in there
The ghosts gather who will instruct me
And when the sea mist rises
Te ra rite tonu te Atua –
The sun who is like the Lord
Will warm my bones, and his arrows
Will pierce to the centre of the shapeless clay of the mind.

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2 comments:

Kate said...

I hope you had a good Christmastime Alden... and that your shoulder is much better that when you last wrote?

Alden Smith said...

Hi Katherine. I had a hard working Christmas. I built a large garden shed with the permission of my much overworked shoulder.