.
Across from here, some streets away,
a grandchild I have never seen.
Last night born. Her mother sleeps.
It’s early afternoon. In a car I read,
my sleeping wife – awaiting…
Grey clouds – stillness: A welcome
to the world. A message – yes, come and
visit. We walk through streets, cross parks,
open the door – and there she is.
Mother and daughter. I take a photo.
A new world from the old. Father,
joyful, compliments her:
A days labour – and now this.
No name, she says, promising.
.
.
A river or the sea – intangible –
living near. The surface and the depth –
all changeable. Like our world – sorrow,
sadness, joy. The ones before us knew.
Your resting place is on the waves, not
the earth. The Avon River, Ōtākaro,
New Brighton Beach, Te Karoro Karoro.
Ōtākaro – a place to play, Te Karoro
Karoro – the meetings of seagulls.
No funeral, just a few words.
Be strong, do not fear, your God will come.
The lame will leap as a deer. The mute will shout.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams
in the desert. A highway – the Way of Holiness.
I am making everything new!
.
For Cathy
.
A view of snowcapped mountains. He often spoke of them. Their property was built on a hill –
through the windows they could be seen. Katsushika Hokusai at the end of his life published
Thirty Six Views of Mt. Fuji – and a printed book – One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji. God has set
eternity in the human heart. Of this, Mt. Fuji was a symbol. The New Zealand Southern Alps,
seen on a winter day, are like a fairy tale. Some folklorists use the term, Märchen or “wonder
tale”. These are tales filled with the marvellous. God makes everything beautiful in its time.
.
For Graeme
.
One day we decided to go on a bush track
overlooking Middle Harbour. It was in December
Holiday time. The day was bright. We walked for a while
until we came to a place with a view.
Clare asked me to close my eyes. Then she kissed me.
Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls,
all your waves and breakers have swept over me.
.
Celebrating forty years of marriage.
.
From above the water, clouds reflected,
going, coming, snowy Hindukush,
a girl, Jaghori River, yes, a mirror –
you want to learn secrets – relinquish dignity,
sea becomes, a spring. Ghazni province,
lush green valley, rivers flowing, rain,
a good land – a land with brooks, streams,
and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills,
a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees,
pomegranates, olive oil and honey,
a land where bread will not be scarce
and you will lack nothing. Do not forget
the Lord your God. Lover of God,
forgotten I, sea becomes, a spring.
.
.
Kindness
found here
.
Kingdom
that comes
.
.
Jesus asked, who is the Son of Man?
Peter knew, the Christ,
the Son of the loving God.
This knowledge – Blessed!
Because no man can understand.
Only the Father can reveal it.
Blessed – because another world
has dawned. A group of people
whom death cannot conquer.
Instead they conquer the darkness
and its powers!
.
.
Within
A life
Another
.
The winter
The spring
.
not only sprouted but had budded,
blossomed and produced almonds
.
Adam named his wife Eve, because she
would become the mother of all the living
.
.
I feel for you, so distant and so near.
Another world, yet mine, no borders here.
Here with you, I cannot see, nor hear,
a script is all we share, a friendship clear.
A stream descends, a view of snowcapped hills,
a river, promised in John, a mirror here.
The dawn arrives, so silently, the stars,
the moon, what was no more, another air.
A sadness everywhere – abandoned, homeless.
And yet a river has a home, a wild
territory, the banks, the snowcapped hills,
the destination and the source. Unkind,
what is. A destination and a source,
crystal clear, come drink without remorse.
.
.
Claudius gathered together a formidable army.
.
The troops were indignant at the prospect of campaigning outside the known world.
.
A lighthouse was built at Boulogne by Caligula, to act a beacon for the craft passing across the channel.
.
As a monument to his success, he built a lofty tower, upon which he ordered lights to be burnt at night-time, for the direction of ships at sea.
.
Cassius Dio Cocceianus: The Histories of Rome, Book 80, Chapter 19.
Suetonius: The Twelve Caesars: The Life of Caligula, Book Three, Chapter 46.
.
(Claudio from Latin, Claudius)
For Hugh’s son, who is now 22. Claudio is severely disabled.
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