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…)
EXCITING! ARETHA FRANKLIN RETURNS TO HOLLYWOOD BOWL!
The hot ticket in entertainment at Los Angeles, infamous Hollywood Bowl outdoor venue, is the return of Aretha Franklin at The Hollywood Bowl in June 2009. It will be the first time back at The Bowl, for Franklin after 35 years. Wow! Amazing. Last time the bowl attracted a huge original black diva, I stopped to write a poem about it when Lady Diana Ross tore up that famous stage. It follows:
HORIWOOD POETICS – GLOBAL MAORI
Taught all around the world, in America, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, The Pacific Islands, South Africa, The University of Edinburgh in Scotland… blah blah blah, here’s a little Maori poem I wrote….
Horiwood's Sam Cruickshank & Miley Cyrus, Rodeo Drive... speak on it!
cos… poetry is the life blood of the literary soul
