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)