11.14.2007

Sonnet V

Sonnet V

I awoke with clear and honest eyes
to you -- the embodiment of soft parts
and soft words, to your singing in warm hallways --
to corridors smelling of your handiwork.

With your voice, the bread rises with the sun, golden,
the cherries sweetly drain at mid-day,
the potatoes murmur in their boil at dusk.
But your crowning lies in the after-glow

of pumpkin-spice along the apple-pathways,
plucking fallen fruit from the orchard floor
and dusting each as a child before they

rest in soft-piles at the road-side.
How we dance in the honeysuckle goodness of your
hands, how we take in solid joy by the mouthful.

11.13.2007

Sonnet IV

Sonnet IV

Naked, your body has the fullness of the horizon
The roundness of your breasts like the curvature of the world
where heaven meets earth and the
sea casts its shape.

In the Autumn twilight, I see you nude with poppies
and laurel, with the brown clay of our youth,
with fire and flood in your eyes.

Naked, you have traveled into my dreams, and naked
you rest there,
cupped like a dove in the palm of my hand
lying quiet in the hollow of my abdomen

My naked and lovely queen, how
your form calls to the glory of
the world.

11.12.2007

Sonnet III

Sonnet III

In the wood-workings, the carvings of lost cultures
I glimpse your almond-eyes, standing as a
testament to time, a lighthouse in the darkness;
a piercing, perfect apparition.

Where the hibiscus grows and the sea-sand
glistens, there your tiny feet leave prints
on wet soil, fitting within my own impressions
in the dust. Here, even as we are apart

you live inside me. Where I travel, there
too you will be. When I float about those
bulbous waves as driftwood and the sea
robs me of my everything, still

I will keep you in the hollow
I've built within me. You will be carried still.

Pablo Neruda and the 100 Love Sonnets

This weekend, I picked up 100 Love Sonnets by the 1971 Nobel Laureate and my favorite poet, Pablo Neruda. He dedicated the entire book, every line, word and phrase to his beloved wife. With that in mind, I have decided to try my hand at a similar, though much smaller endeavor. I will write 20 sonnets and post them as they come. The term sonnet will be more a loose reference than a strict adherence. I will try to maintain an octet and sextet. I have written 2 sonnets today, so here they are.

Sonnet I

The twilight brings you to me
your thick-as-night hair destined
to entwine about my body, as heat
wrapped round the sun.

In your earthy-eyes, I see
the wheat and deep-soil color of kisses
of your lips pressed against my open heart
and the pulse of harvest, of wine.

Your hips, my portion of the moon
the sway and pounding of sea-salt
in the air, on my skin, in my body --
you have taken dominion.

May you produce a new measure, a new
world in me with your earth-forming eyes
and echo of endless foam.


Sonnet II

You are the heiress of beauty, a ray of stardust
of fire, of flame. Lighting in me that hot tempest,
you melt my bones and take the marrow of my manhood
for your own.

You drink me in with little sips, like lemonade
on summer days. Salty and biting, I go in your mouth
and traverse the insides of your body,
exploring the hidden hills with dark clarity.

My wild-fire, when your hands have seared my heart
and my blood boils with longing, when your pink'd
cheeks have scalded this white chest and burnt
into this body of wood, take me as your own --

Take me and recall my oaken fragility,
let the scent of my burning be your stonghold.

11.09.2007

He Kau -- A Season

I am working on writing in Hawaiian, though I am sometimes unsure of the grammar. Here is the latest hand at it.

Kaini'i ikaika
Na nalu nui, huhu, hae
He kino o koa hehe'e
O konikoni
Me limu kohu, me lipoa
Emi a kahe 'oe
Kai make me ka mahina
Kaimalie,
Na wai o kalama
Ho'opa kahakai
Malu, kakahiaka hiki mai

English:

Powerful, salt-encrusted sea
waves large, angry, fierce
a body of melting, fluid strength
of passion
with red seaweed
and valuable seaweed
You ebb and flow
tides receding with the moon.
Silent sea, light on your waters
touching the shore
Peace, dawn approaches

11.08.2007

A Funny Birthday

Saturday was my biological mom's birthday. She turned 57. A few days previous, Pualani and I put our heads together and decided to bar-b-q for her. Az was cool enough to come meet her, bake some cookies and brownies, and hang with us all afternoon. It had been over a year since I had last seen her.

At times, I got a distinct awkward feeling, as though we didn't really know one another. I suppose that is true. But we had some fun talking about when I was a boy and I think Az got a chance to see how I interact with my biological family a little more, so that was good.

For her gift, I made her a CD what we listened to while playing some dominoes. She loved it. I also did some hula for her, as I heard that she misses home.

The best part of the whole thing was just the time that we got to spend together and the fact that we got to eat. There were some initial set-backs to our cooking endeavors (Pualani was late to her own house, there was a stove-top fiasco, no lighter fluid, the coals wouldn't burn, etc.) but everything worked out in the end.

As a result of this whole thing, Pua said she is thinking about dancing when the Ike Kume class begins. I'm seriously looking forward to it.

11.05.2007

Kahi Ao ka Mauka

Kahi ao ka mauka
Kahi po ke kai;
Kunihi ka mauka,
Malie ke kai.
Na wai no Kakahiaka
Kalama no Po'ele'ele
Ola, Make
Malu, Kaua
Na'e ku laua