This week’s poem is by Dr Peter Clayworth, who is an historian and my partner, as well as a fine poet.   He wrote the poem after spending a night on Smoky Beach on Rakiura (Stewart Island).  According to southern legends, Rakiura is the anchor stone of Aoraki’s canoe.

FULL MOON, SMOKY BEACH, LAKIULA,
November 1992.

Full Moon on Smoky Beach,
Rakiura, Lakiula, the Anchor Stone,
Coming up like they told us,
When we were kids,
They say it moves the tides,
And the salt sea within,
Seeing we are mostly water,
I could see the Moon there,
Marama letting down her lines,
Like Maui with his fish,
Dragging the ocean up,
Pulling it into the sky,
I felt that if I didn’t,
Have so much love for my mother,
And feel her loving hold on me,
That embrace Isaac Newton felt,
Sitting under the apple tree,
If not for that I’d join,
Old Rona up there,
Riding along watching the tides,
On this pebble way down here,
Anchor to Aoraki’s canoe,
Smoky Beach on Lakiula.

More Tuesday Poems here