to a fisherman & pukeko

to a fisherman & pukeko
31 december 2015
Te Naupata, Musick Point

With acknowledgements to the image taker for the image taken

to a fisherman
with his rod whipping
back i thought to ask,
‘what, friend, do you
hope to catch late this
last day of the year?’
the sun of this summer
day just a cool glow now
in grey going out on the
west, the low tide
still running deep in
its channel dark with the
coming evening,
before i asked i already knew
‘the next year at least, the
only sure thing, the only
sure catch’.

walking on up along
that road out to the point
i asked the pukeko
‘what, friend, do you hope
to catch late this last
evening of the year?’
it turned its head toward
me, the one foot lifted,
stilled in mid-step and
told me ‘nothing certain
last day of the year or
not, nothing certain’
and plunged on into
the wind-knocked hay
of that high field

The music accompanying the reading is from the 4th movment of Robert Schumann’s ‘Märchenbilder’ op. 113, interpreted here in a 1985 live performance by Yuri Bashmet (viola) & Sviatoslav Richter (piano).

certain view

certain view
november 7, 2021

its big wide steps into you…. a Weathercat still morning snap

in time
you become
a certain view,
the place you
stop to walk
your eye
over a scene
you see better
than anyone,
its moments
known unto you
when it turns into
whatever it’s not,
resplendent in
its dawn,
symphonic in
its night, its big
wide steps
into you, the birds,

reverie

reverie
december 1990

Your sleep, a fledgling in this dawn…

your  sleep    a  fledgling   the birds   would  teach
				to  cry   loudest  among them
			let   your   heart   abroad on
			  the coming sky.

your  sleep   the lightest   branch   of  the  tree
				driven  to root in
				     presence   alone
			the birds vie breath upon
		        split  one  song  amongst them.

the  birds   fall   stoodstill    like   rain  in a   w e b
			close   pull clear   defining  the strength
					of the thread  the
				heart’s drifted  span. 

Copyright © 2021 Peter Le Baige.  All Rights Reserved

The music accompanying the reading is from the first movement of the Sonata for Violin and Piano in A Major by César Franck, interpreted here in live performance by Martha Argerich (piano) and Anne Sophie Mutter (violin).