iMAORI POETRY 101 – HORIWOOD ON THE HOLLYWOOD LIFE

Kia Ora (hello). Some of you are asking me why I don’t write much poetry  these days and just blog about celebrities. So this one’s for you. It’s a poem submitted for Whetu Moana Lua, poetry anthology collection of Maori and Polynesian Poets around the world. Editors are: Robert Sullivan, Reina Whaitiri and Dr Albert Wendt. Originally, I wrote for  Whetu Moana when being trained by author and professor, Witi Ihimaera, in the  art of creative writing.

To  enjoy and appreciate my  poetry for its inflections of  the Maori language, I recommend using this tool, to understand words you may not have heard of before. Being a hori (Maori)  in Hollywood is a pioneering thing, so the online Maori dictionary will help any of you LA types reading it.

My  poems from Whetu Moana I, are taught in Universities in America (the mainland), New Zealand, Hawaii, the UK and Edinburgh Scotland to name a few. So…. I’m shouting this out to all you guys and dolls today doing English Literature progams around the world. Thanks for reading poetry. And most importantly, may you all continue to write your own poetry too.

Flip the hood to read:

iMaori

 iMaori is the name of my phone

that uses niu media in a hori way

 

‘the taiaha of new technologies

used skillfully in brown hands’

 

online it searches the Maori dictionary

–the Ngata version, of course.

 

finding kupu food  to enlighten and

illuminate the wairua and mind

 

it’s also the Maori stork, delivering

in Rei Tu and Rei Pai legendary fashion

fresh pics of pepi, Jake Kereama

 

he’s of Nga Puhi Tonu Nui descent

was born into a hapu of Whakapara

 

while his Uncle Hami played Kupe

in a faraway Hollywood land

 

my phone houses the inner marae walls

held in the crucified palm of my hand

 

flickering through digitized sepia photographs

of my grandparents and the many greats

 

who walked in my moccasins long before

jandals were even invented for big hori feet

 

where their ancient tribal paths meet the axis

of my globalised Maori self, I still hang with them

 

iMaori brings me Hotere’s vintage wisdom too

of no ordinary sun poetic epiphanies

 

of a simple life lived with profound thoughts

defining life beyond an economic atomic

Bush bomb

 

There are no ‘enhaloed clouds’ in sight, but

an economic recession sits heavy on the moko (more…)

August 23, 2009 | Categories: Entertainment Celebrity News | Tags: Ade, Albert Wendt, America, Anne Thorp, Aroha, Books, Breast Cancer, Breast Cancer Survivors, Cancer Prevention, Cancer Prevention is Early Detection, Cancer Survival, Christina Applegate, Cook books, Creative Writing, Cuisine, Dance, Edinburgh, Emmys, English, English Literature, Food, Gifts, Graham Beattie, Hawaii, Healthy Recipes, Hollywoood, Hone Tuwhare, Hope, hori, Horiwood, Horiwood Poetics, horiwood poetix, Horiwords, kai, Kai Ora, Literature, Los Angeles, Lua, Maori, Maori Language, Melissa, New Zealand, Pacific, Poetry, Polynesia, Polynesian Poets, Pubishing, Ralph Hotere, Recipes, Reina Whaitiri, Robert Sullivan, Sam Cruickshank, Scotland, So You Think You Can Dance, South Pacific, Tice Diorio, UK, urban iwi: tihei mauri ora!, Whetu Moana, Witi Ihimaera | 2 Comments »