I nevah met a language I nevah like. So I wen weave English, Pidgin, and ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi into this piece. So much going on dis month. Mahina ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian Language Month), Makahiki Hou Pākē (Chinese New Year), and our usual recognition of ʻŌlelo Paʻi ʻAi (Pidgin) as vehicles of spoken and written expression. Sounds…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Ox -- December Contest
My tutu : 295 words
My tutu She’s building, fountains Shooting higher than the tallest ʻōhiʻa tree in the forest. Her fountains spit rocks and glass Her hemo-skin anger is unbridled. Her wiry tresses snap into myriad fragments of needles and glass floating floating carelessly on a current of hemo-skin heat and wind downwards, downwards, towards rainy Hilo. Her hair…
Renshi Submission
We Hope You Are Too.
We hope. We can only hope. That one day we’ll be gazing in awe at the same sunrise. That we’ll hear the same “first bird” heralding the big dawn. That we’ll hear the first rain drops of an early morning shower on the tin roof. And the dawn and the first bird and the rain…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Ox Writing Contest -- May 2021
Kumuhonua, beach bum or big chief? 250 hua ‘olelo (words)
A beach front hotel in Waikiki, hours after a postcard sunset. The resort is finally returning to “normal”. A malihini man comes rushing into the lobby, shouting. “There’s an old beach bum in my room, don’t know he got in, I recorded everything he said on my phone”. He plays the recording for the security…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rat -- February Contest
Moe Ka Wahine (50 words in Hawaiian) The Woman Sleeps
Moe ka wahine I ka pōuliuli Moe i ka mālie ka wahine inu ʻawa Uē ihola ke kāne ʻili kou Na ke kumu ʻulu kona hoa moe Na ka manu ʻai maiʻa ka hewa Nānā iho nā akua i ka noʻonoʻo Lele aʻe ka pueo Kāhea ka ʻalalā ʻĀ mai nei ka imu. (Translation)…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rat -- December Contest
A Short Siesta : 90 words
She rolls over. Snoring, puffing air, then quiet. Gusts of wind blow through her wiry hair Sun shines on the leathery cracks. On her face, her elbows, her knees, the soles of her lu’au feet. Tutu? You sleeping? No answer. Tutu? Puffing, grunting. Too lazy to open her eyes. She replies. Yeah, jes one short…
Aloha friends, fellow poets and readers. Let’s celebrate February as ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian Language) Month. He Au Hou, “a new era” is a 21st century oli (chant). It’s written to be chanted “leo nui -style”, loudly and proudly, from the rooftops, from a canoe, even a mountaintop. Translation provided below its original text for Da…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Pig
The Jewel-Encrusted Diadem
Fo da boss, he says, “jes’ write”, e kākau wale hoʻi. ʻEha Ke Poʻo Ouuuch! ʻEha ke poʻo! My head hurts. Auē! I feel trampling, all over my rugged kino, my body. I hear yelling, shouting, cussing. Sounds of chanting send tremors through my ʻili. A worn-out cycle of confusion and controversy . One hui…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Pig
Uncle Maloney’s Lūʻau – ten word story
Hemo-skin hot imu stones swatting flies with ti leaf.
Aloha mai kākou e Bamboo Ridge readers, February is also known as the Mahina ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, Hawaiian Language Month. The impact of ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi covers a broad spectrum of impressions on those who come into contact with it. Ranging from the simple brush of “aloha” and “mahalo”, to those who eat, sleep, cry, chant, think…