on O’ahu, I heard the natural and
cultural story of Hawai’i, marveled
at her specific place in the Pacific.
Viewed royal family heirlooms of
Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, last
descendant of the royal Kamehameha
family. Objects, documents, photographs
all testaments to a rich history.
On the grounds outside, one Red-
crested Cardinal, an alien from South
America 1930s, paraded around –
just one of so many who do not belong
in this precious place. And I thought of
her people, so closely connected to nature,
of their lost language just now being found
as at last they talk freely about the past,
drawing on a grammar of culture and
civilization. Here is wild sacred land
that the invaders could neither read nor
understand. Now the young heed the call
of the old ways, the whispers of ancestors
sharing pre-agricultural lore as they restore
sacred groves and ancient lo’i kalo,*
learning once more to share the wild
and the sacred. Let the once-banned
hula dancers, the young poets and farmers
bring the tribe back together to thrive,
celebrating shared beliefs, myths and
magic, ancestry and cosmology.
May they instill collective emotion,
reverence and devotion to the old ways.
Let the fragrances of endemic flora
once more fill the air. Let the enduring
connections everywhere remind them
tribe is all there is.
*taro patch
—
Diana Woodcock has authored seven chapbooks and six poetry collections, most recently Heaven Underfoot (2022 Codhill Press Pauline Uchmanowicz Poetry Award), Holy Sparks (2020 Paraclete Press Poetry Award finalist) and Facing Aridity (2020 Prism Prize for Climate Literature finalist). A three-time Pushcart Prize nominee and Best of the Net nominee, she received the 2011 Vernice Quebodeaux Pathways Poetry Prize for Women (for her debut collection, Swaying on the Elephant’s Shoulders). She teaches at VCUarts Qatar. www.dianawoodcock.com.
