Farewell to Jerusalem
Haere Ra
Farewell to Hiruharama –
The green hills and the river fog
Cradling the convent and the Maori houses –
The peach tree at my door is broken, Sister,
It carried too much fruit,
It hangs now by a bent strip of bark –
But better that way than the grey moss
Cloaking the branch like an old man’s beard;
We are broken by the Love of the Many
And then we are at peace
Like the fog, like the river, like a roofless house
That lets the sun stream in because it cannot help it.
James K. Baxter, 1969
|
