Hotere* - Hone Tuwhare

This is the poem that inspired me to write my own poem which I put to music and ended up winning in a composition competition. Every time I see my keyboard I think of this poem


Hotere*
- Hone Tuwhare

When you offer only three
vertical lines precisely drawn
and set into a dark pool of lacquer
it is a visual kind of starvation:

and even though my eyeballs
roll up and over to peer inside
myself, when I reach the beginning
of your eternity I say instead: hell
let’s have another feed of mussels

Like, I have to think about it, man.

When you stack horizontal lines
into vertical columns which appear
to advance, recede, shimmer and wave
like exploding packs of cards
I merely grunt and say: well, if it
is not a famine, it’s a feast

I have to roll another smoke, man

But when you score a superb orange
circle on a purple thought-base
I shake my head and say: hell, what
is this thing called aroha

Like, I’m euchred, man. I’m eclipsed?




* Ralph Hotere is a NZ artist

http://www.honetuwhare.co.nz/poems.php