NaPoMo NZ Day 5 - Historical figure

[just mercedes]

 
Rules: Write a poem for national poetry month on the topic or form described. Each poem should appear as a separate reply to this thread. The goal is to, at the end of the month have written 30 poems for National Poetry Month. 


Topic 05: Write a poem inspired by a historical figure or event in NZ.
 
Current celebrities can be included https://www.backpackerguide.nz/9-celebri...w-zealand/
 
Historical figures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealan...ory_Makers
 
NZ as seen by a literary visitor https://www.jstor.org/stable/40542877?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
 
or the neglected stories of Maori leaders https://nzhistory.govt.nz/keyword/maori-leaders - one of whom, Te Rauparaha, wrote poetry, some say including NZ’s most famous song/poem, the haka we call Ka mate, the one the All Blacks adopted, and use before matches. (Others say this is a haka from long ago, that Te Rauparaha  would have learned as a teenager.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Te_Rauparaha

Form : any
Line requirements: 8 lines or more

---

Hone Heke’s revenge
 
 
I cut down the weeds
at Kororāreka, three times
so they couldn’t set seed,
and spread.
 
Wikiteria lied to us all,
took our mana. I should never
have signed Tiriti.
 
Yankee whalers had warned me.
For that, I flew no Union Jack,
but the Stars and Stripes,
proudly, from the stern
of my war canoe.
 
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagstaff_War
 
Wikiteria, (Queen) Victoria
mana, power
Tiriti, Treaty (of Waitangi)
 


 

[Keith]

An Interview with Russell Crowe

Hi Russell, great to see you.
Do you think you could sing us something from Les Mis,
Rusell, where you going Rusell.
Please come back.
Rusell I was only joking.

Bill Gallagher

It was breakfast as I recall,
we'd spent half the night
bringing down sheep from the top paddock.
The cattle had pushed through the hedge
and we nearly lost the lot.

That morning Mother wanted me to run her into market.
Hamilton was busy and we had the little one with us.
On the way back the Model T I was driving
broke down. I was trying to fix it and I asked my son
to hold a loose connection on the ignition coil
while I tried to start the engine.

Well the poor little blighter touched
the wrong side of the coil and it kicked him on his arse.
I suppose I should have shouted Eureka,
you know like that Greek bloke.
Because I tried to get little Bill
back under the hood of that car
but he wouldnt go anywhere near it.

Well thats when I thought of it
how to keep the cattle off the fence.
It was simple really, a car battery, cable,
posts and insulators, all boosted by the trembler coil
off my old Model T. It worked a treat.
I ended up building a whole factory
to make em for other farmers like me.
Hell, I bet I could sell them all over the world
if I tried.

[just mercedes]

Wow! That's great - I suppose you know that the farmers of NZ can build anything, with a piece of #8 fencng wire? This is cool as, Bro. Except we have paddocks, rather than fields.

[Keith]

Wow! That's great - I suppose you know that the farmers of NZ can build anything, with a piece of #8 fencng wire? This is cool as, Bro. Except we have paddocks, rather than fields.

Fixed, paddocks to you too thanks Mercedes, keep up the good work it's much appreciated.

[Todd]

Not where I planned on taking this one (I actually respect the person I chose) but you go where you go.

The Eye of the Needle and What it Saw

There wasn’t enough blood for war.
So, it had to become not a war,

but more like a set 
of Russian nesting dolls

placed in a line, each smaller 
than the last. 

When put back together, 
the larger dolls were fed to the smaller. 

Stomachs did not distend, 
and painted smiles showed only satisfaction.

This cannibalism was the Korean War.
It was their three-million inside our fifty-four thousand.

Then Murdoch brought the blood
and more. Every 12 days, his cure

killed more than we lost in Korea, and the deaths
that were no loss happened 21 months later.

Anxiety was cured by hepatitis and the children
were paralyzed. They stood rigid like soldiers,

like dolls,
painted smiles,

closed mouths,
no one spoke.

[CRNDLSM]

Three horses, six goats, six sheep 
and a dozen chickens died,
for me to sit over three
hours, bored to tears, practically
reading the actual book.  Keep
up the great work, really. Not
really, but at least you tried.
*thinking of facts from where the hobbit was shot

[just mercedes]

CRNDL - no big PJ fan huh? Me neither. I do like the noir tone of 'where the Hobbit was shot.'

---

Todd - Sorry, but I'm missing a vital connection here. I remember polio, an epidemic that hit kids around me. That seems to be on the Korean War's (or peace-keeping mission's) timeline, but I can't connect Murdock, or the 54,000/three million. NZ lost around 60 troops in the Korean altercation? You've stumped me, and I gave you the links. Damn.

[Achebe]

In Te Wahipounamu

A long time ago, nothing happened in New Zealand
and it's stayed that way ever since.
Babies who're born, grow only to keel and
die, in the way of all things
that the sages and the mages always knew
in Te Wahipounamu.

The oolong life's slow: like snails, not elands,
like the business of joke books in Linz,
(where the Swabies watch porn, whilst with their free hand
they transact for radiator fins).
Life rages, but ends in g-mu-nu
in Te Wahipounamu.

[CRNDLSM]

[quote="just mercedes" pid='234298' dateline='1507181089']
CRNDL - no big PJ fan huh? Me neither. I do like the noir tone of 'where the Hobbit was shot.'

---

I never saw the hobbit actually, I was exhausted and cynical and made it up as I went to get a 'poem' in for the day lol
His movies are really long though

[Todd]

Todd - Sorry, but I'm missing a vital connection here. I remember polio, an epidemic that hit kids around me. That seems to be on the Korean War's (or peace-keeping mission's) timeline, but I can't connect Murdock, or the 54,000/three million. NZ lost around 60 troops in the Korean altercation? You've stumped me, and I gave you the links. Damn.

No fault of yours, Mercedes. My first drafts can be oddly connected and cryptic. This one may get worked on in some sense later after it's sat for awhile. It isn't anywhere near where it would need to be yet.

Here's how I got there.

1. Murdoch made inventions that shot people or animals (homemade gun, hypos, tranq gun).
2. Hypos were in demand for the Korean war for blood transfusions.
3. Researched the history of hypos and their misuse. 1.8M deaths a year--every 20 seconds
4. Compared those deaths to a war. US Loses/converted to needle deaths, All loses converted to needle deaths
5. Got into the other issues around needle reuse issues
6. Walked away thinking Murdoch created something important, but he didn't enforce his patents. Like Volvo and the harness seatbelt, he simply wanted others to benefit from his invention. Admirably, he didn't want to get rich from it. This however led to companies not doing or suppressing basic innovations for profit--resulting in deaths and disease spreading that ironically this invention was meant to prevent.

The poem comes nowhere close to capturing this but it was the best I could do to keep up with the prompts and stay on track.

Best,

Todd

[just mercedes]

Achebe - methinks your name should be Acerbe! Pithy little ditty - thanks for joining in.

[vagabond]

biography

i am bones
for the stars
i am a killer
with a heart
i am a kiwi
but who´s really
and was
this or that
except for the birds
who can´t leave
their island´s soil
a lack of wings
bordering

Hello Mercedes! i guess that´s is a pretty bad poem but i wanted to participate at least a little (though i don´t have a lot of spare time at the moment)

[just mercedes]

Hello vagabond! I'm glad you found time to join in. Your poem is fine - a response to NZ, something you may want to work on again later. Glad to read you here!

---

...and a sonnet, then I'll be back with today's post.

Headlines
 
White powder dusts the road-side ferns.
A bellbird calls, and timelines crack.
A lawyer vine, with rata, turns
into a curtain, folding back
 
to show the harbour, bathed in sun
where once the lawless ships would call
to trade fresh food, or flax, for guns.
Soon greed for heads outstripped them all
 
as currency. Some sold the dead
they’d killed in war. When all were gone
some tattooed slaves, then sold their heads
and ate the rest. The wars raged on,
 
but naked faces didn’t sell.
They tattooed corpses. Who could tell?
 
 
 

[Anna]

with subtitles from online transliterator


the voice of Lourde
interrupts
another rerun of Gladiator

the lemongrass
on the sill has been cut
and seeps in the kettle

someone mows the lawn
it's summer again in October
time now

for Hone Heke tobe
reborn in Bollywood
speak in Tamil
and be understood
in Bangla

[just mercedes]

I love this! You lead your reader gently into an ambush.

[kolemath]

Oh the World in Which We live

A teenaged boy says, "fuck the system,"
when sipping lattes in Starbucks on the public WiFi.
A twenty-something blonde in elastic pants leads yoga classes,
when born a Christian and attends church most Sundays.
Dread headed whites are accused of cultural theft,
when locked hair is globally historic.
An American country music star fake tans in blonde highlights,
when home in New Zealand.

Oops!  ><

[just mercedes]

kolemath - poor Keith Urban.