109. Serving up the Tree of Life

In my hotel room in downtown Auckland
I fall sleep looking up at the stars
and within moments I'm standing on air
with 7 old wise men, very regal, quite near

They stand in a V shape wearing beautiful robes
akin to our velvet in dark blues, reds and greens
but around their own temples I see ancient symbols
on old, ancient faces you'd see on great halls

The 2 in the center now conjure together
creating a tree made of silver and gold
and soon it starts spinning away from them all
and moves towards me like a slow spinning ball

I'd heard about trees in the Garden of Eden
the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life
but as this one here is coming towards me
I wonder why I'm filled, with such panic and strife?

108. Visitors from afar

Late in the night and around my own bed
footsteps are heard and shadows are seen
But neither malevolent or danger is felt
as I slumber deeply while trying to wake

And into a dream I find myself fall
until I am sitting upright in my bed
where I turn and I see outside my window
an Alien space ship surrounded by fog

Having no fear cept pangs of excitement
I step from my bed and out onto the carpet
but all around me the scenery changes
where a tent is constructed around my own bed

A reality as low and as dense such as ours
prohibits our visitors from moving with ease
So standing together, outside space, outside time
we can meet, we can heal, until our hearts climb

107. Women of Potaka

In Te Pai o Nga Pakanga I wake up in a dream
and see scores of young people crowding around me
Laughing and playing and singing out loud
are the mauri of those who renovated this house

Deep in the wall a large doorway opens
inviting me out and into the night
and as I step through it night changes to day
where three Mareikura are smiling at me

I'm given protection, a great orange python
adorning my head as I kiss all the women
and there I am shown old gardens and plots
belonging to families who lived long ago

But a much deeper lesson is conveyed to me
of a time when great magic was seen on this land
They ask to remind all the ones that they love
of the place of their tupuna whaea of old

* Te Pai o Nga Pakanga (Marae, Potaka, Gisborne)
* Mareikura (Goddess)
* Tupuna Whaea (Grandmothers)

106. The Ark of the Convenant

I find myself sitting by the Ark of the Covenant
mahogany wood gilded with golden leaf
I study the poles running along its top side
and seeing the lid is partially open

Tired and exhausted and slumped very near
a young Hawaiian looks over at me
On his head does he wear a head band of tii
as well as a lei and grass skirt of the same

A man I once knew stands over us both
where words now emerge from his own mouth
They're Catholic, then Protestant, and Church of England
till to my own ears do Pai Marire fall

"You know this prayer" the old fulla says
so Te Kaapo and I now pray together
We lighten the burden carried so long
bringing God's message back to the World

105. The Aristocratic Salamander

Deep in a dimly lit hall does she stand
noble and regal, smiling at me
A beautiful salamander adorned in a robe
with blazen red eyes and red fingernails

She beckons to me like one of her young
to come take my place alongside her throne
and teaches me all that she has to impart
helping me, guiding me, like one of her own

Vision and balance and opening awareness
are a few of the things which come to bare
Growth and transition while maintaining emotion
help me to manage myself with great care

But all the while she stands and she smiles
gracing me with unconditional love
And as I leave her dimly lit hall
I wake with a beautiful sense of renewal...

104. Beacon of Night

Walking along a sealed country road
and further ahead to Miringa Te Kakara
two plumes of smoke come down from the sky
touching the ground where the old whare stood

I sense a third plume is missing from view
and immediately see it form in the sky
I lift up my hand and attract it's attention
where it flies at me quickly hitting the ground

It forms a straight pathway of which I must follow
leading me now to a stream running by
and in it I step and cleanse myself well
before I step onto old hallowed ground

I stand at the entrance of the old, sacred school
performing my kaupare as I slowly move
my breath comes in gasps and my stomach now fills
so I stop and I wait till the energy changes

Around the foundations I now slowly walk
observing its layout and what it all meant
pinpointing axis from pous now long gone
and stones made of limestone like Solomon's Temple

I sit in the East facing out to the West
seeing the Sun rapidly set
but before it descends right out of sight
a second one rises beyond our own night

I'm called to the West and sit by it's pou
closing my eyes as the Light starts to dim
and beside me I hear and feel people moving
invoking emotions and tears from inside me

Well high above me stars now appear
naturally moving, from right then to left
but curiously there is one that is travelling
from north, then to east, then onto the South?!

Elemental beings of the Sky start to notice
the presence of others at one of their shrines
It heralds in, another great step
reforging relations with the divine...


*Miringa Te Kakara (Star House/Temple)
*Whare (House)
*Kaupare (Prayer)
*Pou (Carved post)

103. New Tenants

I walk into a house that is spotless and clean
no pictures or furnishings or anything at all
just carpeted, warm and seeking new tenants
who'll make it a beautiful home it might seem

I peer through the window out into the night
where everything's black like I'm in outter space
I rush out the door where I'm met by 3 kuia
brandishing buckets and mops in my face

'What do you do here, what do you want?'
asking me loudly with a tumultuous tone
It's then that I realise this house is my body
a vessel all ready for new people to own

I turn outwards and look into the dark
and see scores of others now making their way
towards my clean body, towards my clean house
sharing their gifts with my hands and my mouth

* kuia (elderly women)

102. Like a fox

Under the bushes and under the trees
as I see orange fairies dancing and playing
I move towards them slowly and quietly
but two little foxes come smiling at me

The time is not right to meet patupaiarehe
to convene with the ancients like my old people did
Instead there are lessons still yet to learn
to be cunning and patient and even deceive

I must learn to be quiet, to watch and to see
yet laugh and act up when you look at me
Be clever and also learn to adapt
and be diplomatic with a flirt and a smile

I now learn to eat in moderate portions
grazing and snacking on all sorts of morsels
and I'm cognisant many are scared by a fox
but I guess that's a strength against potential foes....

101. Pigeon Dove

I start to drift off when all of a sudden
a fat speckled pigeon of white and of black
lands right in front of me and eyes me a smile

I smile back at this cute little thing
with its red eye liner preening its wings
and then does it come to me this little bird
is another new waka or another merkabah

My partner beside me is stricken in bed
with a very sore throat and a very sore head
so as a small person I see myself climb
onto the back of my new feathered ride

"Take me to fetch a cure" I say
and instantly fly way over the moon
We soar and we glide past planets and stars
setting down at the feet of the great Jehovah

A vision of garlic now comes to me
and two simple words are spoken aloud
I'm now with my partner back in my bed
mumbling "Eat garlic" and saying "Be, well"

100. Io

Outside of space and outside a time
a column of Light towers above me
Beneath it a Universe spins anti-clockwise
behind it, one spinning the opposite way

Now in the presence of something Divine
my body is stricken and filled with great fear
Never before has it ever been close
to what many people, might call, our God

I'm deadly still, for fear of moving
I close off my ears in fear of exploding
and simply stand with the greatest humility
beholding a sight, few ever will see...

99. Freedom

With my eyes to the ground I live life within bondage
seeing only the feet of the malietoa
Accidentally I look up at his face
and instantly taken to be whipped and be beaten

Deep in a dream and in my dna
I see a moment in time, some one thousand years
where Polynesia is centrally ruled
from Tongatapu or the Kingdom of Tonga

Descendants of tohunga from around the Pacific
are born into slavery to carry out rites
Inverted pyramids go deep underground
born on the backs of a lost tribe of Israel?

The gardens and wives of chiefs and of nobles
along with the women who bear chiefly slaves
are tilled very carefully by their very own servants
till new generations are born once again

And to this day have the bloodlines remained
albeit enforced with anguish and pain
where all of our gifts were nurtured as well
but born out of servitude or some sort of hell

*Malietoa (Tongan Chief)

98. African Ladies

African ladies now teach me to dance
they hold out their hands and shake their behinds
As demons and spirits of evil come close
they stamp on the ground and kick out with their toes

They laugh and they smile and turn round and round
while their beautiful clothing brushes the ground
They reach and they jump, they duck and they dive
with voices which cut through the fabric of time

So here do I learn another great lesson
taught by majestic women from Africa
Where some people ward off spirits with prayer
these women dance, away all their fears....

97. Marokopa

The lull of the night puts me quickly to sleep

wrapped warm and tight in my blue sleeping bag

The light of the moon shines down apon

the roof of the tent and making it glow

With my eyes closed, I now plainly see

right through  the tent and up into a tree

a peach tree which hangs out over my head 

and a woman sits there looking down at me

Oh Marokopa you're a funny old place

filled with old Maori energy and beings around

Where spaceships and aliens are said to frequent

and where alien babies feel protected and safe

And here in the branches of a little peach tree
over the top of my very own tent
Is a curious woman with wide open eyes
clearly looking and eye balling me?!

But I leave the old girl, high up in her tree

albeit with eyes fixed firmly on me

I give her a smile and offer up love

but she doesn't respond or do anything

So I turn on my side and away from her gaze

hearing the quiet of stillness around

I snuggle into the peace of my blue sleeping bag
and into the comfort of the soft, comfy ground

96. Tuna

One hundred and twenty feet high in the air
stands a massive big eel with black glistening skin
It rises from out of the most beautiful water
from the brightest blue oceans, from across the Pacific

Now right in front of me it rears it's great head
opens its eyes and and its gigantic mouth
but this one seems friendly, happy almost
inviting me now to come for a ride

And now on its crown it begs me to sit
holding on tightly to the fins on it's head
My very own waka or merkaba of light
now waits to convey me to faraway shores...

95. Te Rakau Matarua

Te Rakau Matarua is a double edged sword
wielded by gods and goddesses alike
Maori, Egyptian, Indian, African
all the same energy within different races

But hidden within my own dna
I'm taken right back to our very own story
where Tumatauenga, Tane and Rongo
each take a turn in wielding it's power

Its true what they say - it can cut and can thrust
it can defend the weak, and gain people's trust
but once its unsheathed, or the taiaha's raised
one's very own heart is never the same

By divine right and by divine rule
was this weapon passed down unto the gods
Until to their very first human offspring
where she gave her own father, the world's first adam's apple




"It was that daughter of the first woman and Tane, Hine-ti-tama by name, who offered up that prayer whereby the Adam's apple was formed in Tane's throat, and all his descendants, with the exception of the females, who have none, the reason being because her father lay with her as his wife, hence her anger, and it was a token of Tane's sin against her" An ancient Maori poem, by Tuhoto-Ariki, p 56. in the Journals of the Polynesian Society Volume 16 1907 Volume 16, No. 1 x

94. At the feet of St Peter

In a grand, giant hall of masonry stone
The Archangel Michael is talking to Peter
He paces the floor, insistent on action
pleading his case, asking to do more

On a floor of grey stone do I sit and I watch
as the feet of Shivon move hastily past me
He's as tall as 12 men, a gargantuan being
approaching a wall of hieroglyph tiles

He changes the tiles in a subsequent order
which opens a door to another dimension
and steps through the door and out to Olympus
while placating Michael with a frown and a smile

And from up on high I look down at our Saints
as Peter himself now climbs some great stairs
I turn back to see where Michael has gone
but the sweet scent of this World, is one he can't bare

93. Fairy Lights

In the dim of my bedroom with the curtains now pulled
from the shine of the moon and the bustle of night
little lights twinke, fizzle and flash
the brightest of blue or sparkles of white

The fairies are here and with fun and with flair
they reveal themselves to me to show they are near
They're patupaiarehe who once long ago
lived amongst people and helped them to grow

They showed them the future as well as time travel
by using site lines and ornately carved pou
They cured the ill, they punished the guilty
but reveled and shone at the drop of a song

And now do they come, albeit to me
to my own home in the heart of suburbia
and begin to surround me as they once did
to all of my ancestors with joy and with glee

92. The Spirit of the Birds

Out on the lawn in front of the House
Korotangi and I are having a korero
He asks after me, and how I have been
without using words - just imagery

Stately and regal and perched on the grass
as big as a man but as wide as a horse
his giant, great head turns slowly towards me
with unblinking eyes looking into my soul

On an ordinary day in the middle of Wellington
miles away from my very own homelands
I now get inducted to take care of the birds
like my ancestors did many lifetimes ago...

91.Cord of White Light

Looking out of the window and to the horizon
I see a black ribbon move through the air
it begins to descend down onto my house
an essence of darkness, of sadness, of terror

Big screaming eyes and a gaping dark mouth
surrounded by smoke which pulses and plumes
now stands beside me shrieking and howling
and filling my heart with malevolent fear

But I take from my waist a cord of white light
and now bind the two of us tightly together
and no-longer see my kitchen or dining room
but a corridor filled with doorways of portals

For whatever reason this being was formed
it is not up to me to banish or kill it
So I take this great Sadness to its next destination
til we come to a door it looks longingly at

With taiaha in hand a warrior steps forward
so nothing else enters into our domain
and a wahine toa begins to karanga
as we step forward to open the door

This is the doorway to Hades itself
to the very own Whare of the Atua Whiro
where slowly but surely I take down the cord
and let this of our brethren, go to his own World....

90. My mother's couch

Sitting apon my mother's own couch
a Pleiadian woman with golden hair sits
Sensuously she eyes me a smile
drawing me in to be by her side

But standing beside her is a Pleiadian man
barring the way with one of his hands
He is the Protector of his Angelic Charge
guarding a Goddess, guarding his mate

Long, thin, straight hair of platinum blond
fall past his temples and down to his shoulders
and ever so slightly between her and I
he turns and conveys a message from her

A flood of emotion and question marks come
of journeys untravelled and actions not done
and with a serious tone, he asks one single thing
"Why has your destiny not yet begun?"

I wake in the morning and begin to reflect
on what are the barriers holding me back
I guess its the pull and the tug thats so real
of going alone despite what others feel

89. Ojibwe ladies with embroidery stories

In a cramped little kitchen
filled with laughter and smiles
I sit at the table with 2 nokomisinonnig

Their long, straight, grey hair
pulled loosely behind them
while wrinkled round faces
look sweetly down at me

One of them begins by drawing the eye
to a beautifully quilted, coat that she wears
running her fingers along stitched designs
of silver grey stars over universe seams

The other now shows me the coat that she wears
soft to the touch with an apricot hue
and shaking the coat and making it billow
I see a new story begin to unfold

Some people write books while others may carve
some people sing, while others might dance
but these little old ladies who sit in their kitchen
show me the way, they share their own stories


* Nokomisinonnig (Grandmothers)