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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.