Star Waka

STAR WAKA

STAR WAKA

Robert Sullivan

CONTENTS

Title Page

Note

He karakia timatanga

i

ii

iii About some of the crew

iv 2140AD

v Honda Waka

vi Feelings

vii Reconnaissance

viii No

ix

x Goldie (1)

xi

xii Independence Day

xiii Rough Cuts

xiv Ka huri ahau ki te reo o te ao pouri

xv Sullivan Whanau

Waka 16 Kua wheturangitia koe

xvii Some definitions and a note on orthography

xviii Similitude

xix

xx a whakapapa construction

xxi Te ao marama I

xxii Te ao marama II

xxiii Formats (1)

xxiv Formats (2)

xxv power/powerlessness

xxvi

xxvii

xxviii Hooked

Waka 29 waka taua

xxx

xxxi

xxxii herenga waka

xxxiii

xxxiv Goldie (2)

xxxv

xxxvi

37

38 fleurs de lis

39 A wave

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48 (Bright 1)

49 (environment 1)

50

51

52

53

54 waka rorohiko

55 Araiteuru

Waka 56 A Double-Hulled Waka

Waka 57 El Nino Waka

Waka 58 Waitangi Day

Waka 59 Elsdon Best

Waka 60 Dead Reckoning

Waka 61 Fragment

Waka 62 A narrator’s note

Waka 63 Venus

Waka 64

Waka 65

Waka 66 Hokule‘a

Waka 67 from We the Navigators

Waka 68

Waka 69 Kupe

Waka 70

Waka 71

Waka 72 Hawaikinui’s 1985 journey

Waka 73 Gone fishing

Waka 74 Sea anchor

Waka 75 A storm

Waka 76

Waka 77

Waka 78 An historical line

Waka 79

Waka 80

Waka 81 A cup of tea

Waka 82 Te ao marama III

Waka 83

Waka 84

Waka 85

Waka 86

Waka 87

Waka 88

Waka 89

Waka 90 Te ao marama IV

Waka 91 A Feast

Waka 92

Waka 93

Waka 94

Waka 95

Waka 96

Waka 97

Waka 98

Waka 99

Waka 100

Also by Robert Sullivan

Copyright

Note

I wrote Star Waka with some threads to it: that each poem must have a star, a waka or the ocean. This sequence is like a waka, members of the crew change, the rhythm and the view changes – it is subject to the laws of nature.

There are three sections, indicated by the change in title numbering from Roman to Arabic to ‘waka’ numbering. Occasionally a poem’s numbering breaks into another part of the sequence.

There is a core of one hundred poems, and 2001 lines.

For references to Maori mythology see Margaret Orbell’s Encyclopedia of Maori Mythology. Other references are built into the text.

He karakia timatanga

A prayer to guide waka out the throat,

between Hawaiiki’s teeth, the last green speckled

glove of coast, past upthrust knee and rock toe

in the distance to paddle and sail toward sunset –

when each crack in the house of the sun

is submerged – doors and windows cloaked by night,

charred sky where stars become arrows,

lit signs travelling across a black zone.