Poem

The outer side of Ranu Raraku crater where the moai statues were created

In the autumn of 2009 when I visited Easter Island, Chile and  western Argentina, I kept a diary. Had I read it in the last twelve years? I don't think so but today I dipped into it and about thirty pages in I discovered that I had attempted a poem while staying on the island. 

Twelve years later I have reworked it slightly and given it a little spit and polish while retaining the sense that it was "of the moment" - inspired by being there on one of the remotest inhabited specks of land on the entire planet. 

Here it is:-

Rapa Nui

With such certainty

The stone adze struck

Unyielding tuff.

Sometimes the carvers

Would wipe their brows

And survey the line

Drawn where ocean met sky.

Way beyond it,

Chinese potters made exquisite vessels,

Aztecs built Tenochtitlan,

Egyptians immortalised the Nile

And America sat unknown.But here on the slopes

Of Ranu Raraku

They chipped away

Day by day

Making their moai

For the dead

And for the

Extolment of the living.

There was never a doubt

That this is what life

Was all about.

28.10.09

NOTES

Rapa Nui = Polynesian name for Easter Island

tuff = a volcanic rock native to Easter Island.
Tenochtitlan = Aztec city now overwhelmed by modern day Mexico City. It was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas
Ranu Raraku = crater on Easter Island where nearly all the statues were carved
moai = the famous stone heads
Extolment = praise, approval and commendation

Moai inside Ranu Raraku crater - still waiting to be transported

This poem is, I think,  okay. I am glad I rediscovered it but maybe it's time to write another poem or two that reflect upon that faraway island and what it might mean.

from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/3Ffz6fC