Tangi, Parihaka
for Te Miringa Hohaia

Everywhere a voice
is heard—
            not this voice, but

the hollow back-bone
of a dog, or a volcano
breathing inwards.

Somewhere a sprig,
stem or root, a wreath
          worn in the hair
and the river
which is only as deep
          as the sky

and the coiled eel
its foundation stone.

Elsewhere a voice
not this one
         a beaten drum
in a flax basket—the heart
in its retiring place.

Around the head of each
an encircling greenness—
          karaka, karakia, these
expertly woven branches
          and leaves
that cannot hold him 
               to us

         but neither will they
         let him go.

Gregory O’Brien
from Beauties of the Octagonal Pool, Auckland University Press, 2012
(written after attending the tangi of Te Miringa Hohaia at Parihaka)

Gregory O’Brien’s recent books are House and Contents (AUP, 2022) and Don Binney–Flight Path (AUP, 2023). Recent activities have been focussed on the wider Pacific region (he is currently working on a book of poetry and art with John Pule) and Central Otago. In 2024 Gregory was made an Honorary Geographer by the New Zealand Geographic Society. This month Gregory’s new book with poet artist John Puhiatau Pule, This Must Be the Island — Liga Hanai e MotuOceanic conversations, will be published by Massey University Press.