113. Te Taipo

Asleep in the whare kai we find ourselves lie
Hinekura herself, to the brim filled with whanau
When as soon as my eyes, close for the night
does the room fill with tables, and chairs set up right

But on top of a table, leering at me
is a scrawny like goblin, crouching and smiling
with big oval eyes and gaps in his teeth
he nervously watches me, checking me out

"Tena koe my friend" I hear myself say
where he inches closer, smiling some more
but tired from a day spent with our Aunty Rose
I bid him goodnight, and go back to sleep..

112. Patupaiarehe

At the base of a tree on top of a hill
a little blue fairy forages for food
Just a few inches tall she stands and she smiles
turning her head at me, from side to side

A little black dress she wears on her body
but little blue wings adorn her small back
I bend down and say hi with a big gushing smile
where she shimmies and giggles bringing joy to my heart

111. Ke Mo'owahine

At the end of my bed the mo'owahine sits
with long, jet black hair over porcelain skin
and with eyes like obsidian or black lava stone
she waits for me patiently until I awake

In a flurry of dark, misty hurricane smoke
I'm carried away across the great ocean
and touch down in Hawaii in the middle of night
on the banks of a river flanked by shimmering trees

Across broad, flat grey river stones I hop and I step
and find myself entering a massive great hall
filled with nobles relaxing, joking and laughing
but I make way further to a small inner sanctum

And this must be Lohiau husband-to-be
to the Goddess named Pele to be fetched by me
But first I am asked to sing and to dance
and am given a grey pahu carved with cuneiform

Unable to read the writing inscribed
the nobility smile and pronounce the words
and with them I'm singing an ancient old ole
much to the delight of my sister's new groom

110. Out of the Ocean

Inside an old store room I find myself standing
in front of a pile of dusty old books
I think this is called the Akashic Library
with historical accounts of a person's past lives

I leap at the chance to know more about me
and to the first page of the book do I start
and there do I see my very first life
4 billion years ago into the past

Between the pages, the words and all of the letters
and the spaces between them I find myself fall
until do I see my own self emerge
from an ocean of strands, of yellow and gold

From the Sea, from the Sea
and from out of the Ocean
I come onto land and look all around
but no other life has even been born
onto this Earth, except for me?!

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)