A Dream for Mataariki
Maori New Year

Last night I dreamt about you,
you said, from the dark,
and in an instant
smouldering embers
that once blazed fiercely,
flickered again into life
from beneath the ashes
of parted time,
at Mataariki.

Pleiades rises over dawn's horizon,
heralds new seasons for an old world,
new life and new beginnings; a time
of dreaming and remembrance,
lamentation and celebration,
festivity and feasting: So does
my heart rise above the eternal sadness
of life, and sings again with joy,
at Mataariki.


© Ross Nepia Himona


poems