drum

drum

Acknowledgements to Tony Wills, Wikipedia Commons for use of this image

on
cedar branch
split in
setting sun
cicada chant
shaman’s
rattle-drum
twirling us
twirling us
twirling us
toward sleep
twirling us
twirling us
twirling us
toward sleep,
in the slowing
beat, between
the crisp
woods of its
sound,
we walk
naked into
the earth’s
moulting
summer

sea and rails

sea and rails

Kiwi Rail, Napier to Gisborne line. Acknowledgements to the https://www.napier-gisborne-railway.co.nz/ for use of this image

the rusted
flanks
the shining
heads of
rail the
wheels
grind
their
clattering
tonnage
along,
the ballast
stones*
chocked in
gradient
down through
weed and grasses
to the shore,
the ruby
signal light
were not
out of place
before
an ocean,
as it was the
sea we once

the bamboo

the bamboo

‘Misty Bamboo on a Distant Mountain’, dated 1753 by Chinese painter Zheng Xie, image (public domain) sourced from metmuseum.org

her leaves
an instant
the wind
delights.

a grove of rain
tethered as
green fibre
and root.

its spirit sews
my nerve again

to leave
pain’s shell:

calcium scar
from a once sea
in rock

october 1982

Copyright ©1986 Peter Le Baige.  All Rights Reserved.  Reproduced from my own publication ‘street hung with daylit moon’, Chamaeleon Press

The music is from ‘Edo Lullaby’ as performed by the Soloists Of The Ensemble Nipponia ‎on their album ‘Japan: Traditional Vocal & Instrumental Music’ (recorded 1976)