Wish me luck! 
Vignettes
The Meandering Series
I
If Aoraki was personified
who could be more of a ‘cloud piercer’
than our Kiri? (Her figure is less formidable of course).
I’ve seen clouds disperse
and felt the bluest of clear skies above me
several times
as her voice picked up the updraught
delicately
my soul caught on the wing.
II
The best places to explore
are off the track
those spots
that no-one seems to have beaten you to.
Lilburn,
Knox,
Nathan Haines
each leads the weary musical tourist
stick/Casiotone/sax in hand
towards that cove
you never knew existed
with so few human traces
it could be considered virginal.
Who knew there were so many hidden caves
to wonder in?
Like the west coast Crooked River,
from the Southern Alps
to Lake Brunner,
Phil Dadson
starts from scratch
twisting erratically
then meandering
to forge his own paths.
III
Hirini Melbourne
and Richard Nunns
found the rain and the wind again.
(Have you ever heard the Hue Puruwai?)
Beachcombers
would delight
in the carved albatross wing bone
half-buried in the cultural sands
for all those years.
Melbourne and Nunns
blew the sand
off the rei*
and opened their ketes
filled with all number of national treasures.
If you listen carefully
you might hear
the melodic sobs of a whale again
from the Putatara
held to ancient lips.
*cherished posession
IV
We inhabit the bach house
in summer
familiar and sturdy
as a Jordan Luck
or a Dobbyn anthem.
We laze under clear sky sun
then it’s back to legoland
under the long grey cloud
of top 40 radio pollution.
