Tuesday Poem - Taonga Puoro

In October 2008, I was one of ten artists invited to participate in the Caselberg Trust's inaugural Breaksea Girl Residency. Our group of painters, poets, a jeweler, a filmmaker and a composer spent six days and nights on board the conservation yacht, the Breaksea Girl, exploring the dark and dramatic waterways of Western Fiordland. 

Before setting sail from Dusky Sound, our Captain Lance suggested that should any one of us feel a need for space, we should speak up and he would drop us off on a convenient rock for as long as might be deemed necessary.

"Can’t you just picture it," said Gillian. "Ten artists. Ten rocks?"

TAONGA PUORO*

for Gillian Whitehead

This unsteady place of black water and red kelp insists

we lay down our tools and listen.

From where I stand, spine to the rope, I catch her

in the act – eyes closed, head back – undisturbed by silence

or squall, the sharp/flat cadences of weather.

She’s with us on the Breaksea Girl, but music

is her separate boat.

See how her face is wet

with notes, her throat a waiting bird.

Taonga Puoro surge in her chest like waterfalls.

How strange I should remember here a line I read

long, long ago; bees in Mykanos hum in a minor chord.

Here, the scale is unpredictable, the thrum

that of a sailor’s cap, an incidental island,

a glissando of salt scattering the shadows of dark-bellied fish.

We sail through contrapuntal seas -

our private charts, our common geography.

Ten artists, yes, and at least as many rocks. But

in this unsteady place of black water and red kelp

                   we do as we must. We lay down our tools and listen.

      

        CB 2009 

       

*"Taonga Puoro are the musical instruments of the Maori people of Aotearoa, New Zealand. The name Taonga Puoro means 'singing treasures' and denotes how highly the instruments are valued, both for the beauty of the sound, the instrument itself and the story of the Taonga. There are many different types of Taonga Puoro, from shell trumpets, to unique types of flutes, spun instruments and bird callers. All instruments are seen as individuals as they have their own unique voice and decoration. They are grouped into families according to how they were created in the ancestral past. These stories are shared through the sounds of the Taonga and the carvings on them. There are many different uses for Taonga Puoro, from open entertainment to sacred ritual use. In either context, when played, they somehow transmit an appreciation for the spiritual dimensions from which they come. . . " 

If you would like to learn more about Taonga Puoro - and to see and hear them, click here.

Meet Gillian Whitehead here and enjoy her compositions here, here and here. 

For more Tuesday Poems, please click on the quill. This week's editor is TP curator Mary McCallum with the poem 'Home to You' by Michele Amas 

Aaah. . . 'tis good to be back.