Volcano Renshi Workshop: 'Ama'uma'u Renshi

'Ama'uma'u Renshi

From the envelope: “and my hands will fly to my mouth.”

My hands fly to my mouth.
My tongue goes still
Grows thick
Heavy with its burden
My breath comes faster
Twists. Tighter.
I cannot answer.

~ Caroline Garrett

Last Words

I cannot answer – am
Mute.
Standing before the coffin, having
Never glimpsed
waxen flesh,
except in a museum. Could
Not look, nor
turn away. This
Father I hardly knew.

Had to reach in, to
Touch; making certain
Death was
Final.

Hands posed uselessly alongside
Best silk jacket – must
Remind myself, a
Corpse can do me no harm.

~ Bela Johnson

Do me harm?

You think you can touch me?
I am born on the land
But bred in the sea.
I am the mo’o wahine
Sunning along the banks of the river
Then suddenly –
Gone without even a splash.
Think you can figure me out?
You think you can hurt me?
I am the wind in the trees
Ocean tides that sway ʻohia forest.
I am the ʻuhane
Watching from the darkness
of the forest.

~ Mililani Hughes

The Darkness of the Forest

The darkness of the forest
overwhelms me.

How come when I hike you
in the morning
you are a place of
peace
beauty
light
color

As darkness descends –
You are mysterious
eerie
full of deep, dark scary shadows
How can this be the same place?

~ Emma Kato

The Same

Nothing’s the same
after you realize your mortality.
Life’s no longer a continuum
but just starts and falls
leaps and slides
but how deep your perceptions
Of others
Your feeling for others
purples are magentas
yellow is sunlight
eyes look deep.

~ Miyoko Sugano