Sound/speech/silence – what we hear; what we say; what we think … the
sounds of the earth, the sea and sky. Language lifts man or destroys him. In
periods or stages of my writing years my soul goes through playing with words,
with ideas.
Last week we took ourselves to Parakai where the mineral waters are
harnessed for spas. I have been taking ‘time out’ at Parakai since my mother
introduced me to those healing water in my teenage years. As a young man my
father had laboured on the laying of the Council mineral pool foundations. I
returned once, in my early twenties to stay at the old hotel, where we ran the
water for our own baths. Over the years Parakai and the hugeness of the Kaipara
harbour, where Dad plied his launch and barge carting business, the high clear
skies and the huge harbour waters have called me. These river/harbour places
between Dargaville and Helensville are my waterway roots, my birth, my whakapapa.
Nowadays I live across country, on the east coast. It takes me forty minutes of
easy driving through farmlands and small settlements to reach Helensville …
another four or five to Parakai … and about another twenty-five minutes to
Shelly Beach, my other favourite place.
from
glass city
to
country grass
is
thirty
minutes
spring grows
in
punga groves
in
peace paddocks
under
August
Skies
This is Jean ‘Angel’ Allen tired
of the rain but loving the lambs in this New Zealand spring weather.
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