Te Werahi Beach & the promised land

*Te Werahi Beach & the promised land

the rhyme of the rock & headline, taken in that dawn, the waves were the only person walking

from the drenched shadow of the morning cliff

looking west it lay out on the running ocean

Cape Maria van Diemen,

a name scratched down once of a time

by restless europeans on parchment,

a promised land of the dawn

mapped in early gold

sand hills forged as

simple as cloud along

the still pink rim of sky west

or a rock on the inward rush

of a wave the beach wide

hid a city on the other side

of old things,

missing friends, lost stories, altars

come, sun

come, sun

wrecked here
on the edge of
these weathers
i wait for you
like a sun
to lift me
clear
to hold
me
warm
to love
me in
your
hands
broken on
this shore
hurry, love,
hurry, the
eyes of
stones
that lap

Duino autumn

Duino* autumn

Castello di Duino near Trieste, Italy

saw a man in overalls
in the courtyard this morning
trying to knock down the
leaves of the ornamental
peach ripping the rake handle
along the twigs and branch
looking for an early fall
to save the sweeping
of dry leaves rotten leaf
between brick that comes
later on
stay your hand, friend,
lest god shake your tree
too soon
*’Oh trees of life, oh
when winterly?’ wrote
Rilke who heard the angels
in halls of the ear,
in rooms overlooking the
sea, the deeper standing
of their voice, a stronger
being here* than that
given us felt their
voice in moon in wind
in the turnings up and out