Yes. I liked 'slaughtering brisker' especially.
Doug
On Nov 20, 2013, at 2:36 AM, Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Thanks Max -what a history -must read more about Te Rauparaha -
> the Maori Napoleon
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Max Richards
> Sent: 20 November 2013 05:31
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: 'Wars and Peace'
>
> Wars and Peace
>
> 1. Mural by Withers at Purrumbete
>
> Proud of their new heritage,
> the Manifolds had in from
> Melbourne its best muralist
>
> who at their behest
> painted on the hall wall
> how the Blacks watched
>
> while they landed sheep,
> discovered grazing land
> and good water,
>
> made it their own,
> yet those Blacks came back -
> on the attack
>
> until repulsed -
> stealing water and sheep.
> Peace was restored.
>
>
> 2. Onawe
>
> Driving over exhilarating hills
> where a few sheep steeply grazed,
>
> I pointed below to
> the small green peninsula
>
> settled on the waters
> of Akaroa Harbour.
>
> So so peaceful, she sighed.
> Yes - now, I replied,
>
> but I remember being told
> of Maori warfare -
>
> eighteen thirties, was it?
> when muskets made for
>
> slaughtering brisker
> than with taiaha and patu -
>
> Onawe's defenders killed
> or enslaved by bold
>
> canoe-borne invaders -
> led by Te Rauparaha -
>
> the Maori Napoleon.
> What was once fortified -
>
> is now green turf. Peace -
> yes, now (she sighed).
>
>
> 3. 'The Last of the Unjust' [Terezin, Nisko]
>
> The camera for this slow
> movie lingered on verdure,
>
> venerable trees,
> unspoiled old villages,
>
> tilled earth and vegetables,
> weathered stone walls,
>
> while the commentary dwelled
>
> on the long death march under
> the trees, guards trigger-happy;
>
> starvation, typhus,
> where the scaffold was,
>
> where the firing squad -
> near the potato patch.
>
Douglas Barbour
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http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
http://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/
Latest books:
Continuations & Continuations 2 (with Sheila E Murphy)
http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=962
Recording Dates
(Rubicon Press)
Art is always the replacing of indifference by attention.
Guy Davenport
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