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A poem for Papatûânuku – Mother Earth (Ngâti Hine/Ngâpuhi writer Nadine Anne Hura)

Updated: May 4, 2020




Rest now, e Papatûânuku


Breathe easy and settle


Right here where you are


We’ll not move upon you


For awhile


We’ll stop, we’ll cease


We’ll slow down and stay home


Draw each other close and be kind


Kinder than we’ve ever been.


I wish we could say we were doing it for you

as much as ourselves


But hei aha


We’re doing it anyway


It’s right. It’s time.


Time to return


Time to remember


Time to listen and forgive


Time to withhold judgment


Time to cry


Time to think


About others


Remove our shoes


Press hands to soil


Sift grains between fingers


🍃 Gentle palms


Time to plant


Time to wait


Time to notice


To whom we belong


For now it’s just you


And the wind


And the forests and the oceans and the sky full of rain


Finally, it’s raining!


Ka turuturu te wai kamo o Rangi ki runga i a koe


Embrace it


This sacrifice of solitude we have carved out for you


He iti noaiho – a small offering


People always said it wasn’t possible


To ground flights and stay home and stop our habits of consumption


But it was


It always was.


We were just afraid of how much it was going to hurt

– and it IS hurting and it will hurt and continue to hurt


But not as much as you have been hurt.


So be still now


Wrap your hills around our absence


Loosen the concrete belt cinched tight at your waist


Rest.


Breathe.


Recover.


Heal –


And we will do the same.

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