terrace slice

A little city terrace I love
and the people who tend it.
Photo: C and C terrace, Hong Kong 

soon soon

Soon soon, two
friends I love
will be with me.
It's like waiting
for the moon.
Photo: Streetlit tree, Hong Kong

good day

Please sing today, it is 
a birth of a good day. 
Photo: Singing in Mongkok, Hong Kong
Text: for I and me, and also for T and M,
and for C, S and D

hol(e)y

Every day is holy, every where.
Photo: Digital screen and opening, chapel, Hong Kong

citrus sink

On the way to 
tangelolemonorange 
marmalade.
Photo: Our kitchen sink, New Zealand

rise and shine

Rise and shine, 
my mother used to say,
especially when we wanted 
to do neither!
Photo: Morning garden, Carterton, New Zealand

red garden

Make a beautiful day.
Photo:Cherries from the garden,
Carterton, New Zealand

one eve, another

It's Christmas Eve, 
a week before another Eve.
Photo: Looking out a toilet door, Carterton, New Zealand

warmth

For me, this is a time to say hello to everyone, everything, as one year ends, and another begins. A time to honor life, beauty, tenderness, justice. A time to be warm. 

It's summertime here. The sun presides. And in my study, the word 'warmth' stays above the desk. A friend drew the Chinese characters for me as a gift. Thank you. Always.

Photo: A wintertime fire in the living room, New Zealand

the moon in us

Today, friends of mine are gathering 
by the Hong Kong sea. On another day, 
they sent this night-blooming flower to me. 
The very first poem I wrote for us all 
was called 'The Moon In Us'
and how I miss us, love us.
Photo: Tan Fa, Tai Hang, Hong Kong
A photograph sent by S. 

catch

Three in a net.
Photo: Mango, Philippines

folded sky

Here, up from the upper-floor living room, 
a piece of sky, folded.
Photo: The Koromiko Road home, New Zealand

sing the season

Here I am singing
whatever the season.
Photo: By Wong Yankwai
Location: Eastbound tram, Hong Kong
We reversed the image to feature 
on my newest book, Fifty Stories Fifty Images

sky glass mirror

So many ways to see.
Photo: Rehearsal room, Bethanie, 
Pokfulam, Hong Kong

rosy eve

Last night, the sky was rosy
and we remain so.
Photo: Bethanie, Pokfulam, Hong Kong

merry city

Star in the city. 
Photo: Early evening, Hong Kong

y day

I like the way the 'y' looks in the day.
Photo: In a hotel elevator/lift, China, 
where Saturday is called the sixth day.

stop and look, up

I walked past this store with two men with tattoos in front of me. They stopped and looked up. So I stopped and looked up.  A swallow's nest was above. 
Photo: An adult video store, Masterton, New Zealand 

can you see it?

I saw a baby yesterday.
A baby hedgehog.
It curled itself into a little ball as I approached.
The little claws next to the little nose, breathing.
Its spines softest and shortest just above the nose.
Can you see it?
Sorry, I didn't take a photo.
I wanted nothing between me and the body ball.

not the end

It is not the end today.
I am not sure anything ever ends.
Maybe other things begin.
Photo: Terracotta warrior, China

love even more

Two friends will visit soon.
We will see these mountains
on a road trip on this island.
There's something about traveling
with people you love. Usually, 
you love them even more.
Photo: From the car on another trip,
North Island, New Zealand

cleaning and hiding

As a child, I would be asked to clean up at three main times: on Saturdays, when guests came for a visit, and for the Christmas season. 
Nowadays, it is a visual sense of order I want, which can mean a degree of cleanliness, or just hiding things from view.
Photo: S in his village, Hong Kong

handmade rooms

I found these doors the other day 
and would love to enter the rooms.
Photo: On a sidestreet, Masterton, New Zealand

fo

A flying object, identified.
Photo: Ho Min Dang, Hong Kong

look again

I was on a campus today, the last day 
of school for many students. I felt such 
a sense of the past, and future. Look, 
a student might say. Now look again. 
I am not the same person.
Photo: Pond, Masterton, New Zealand
For L and her friends

two horizons

This reminds me of being in an airplane,
where I choose a window seat, 
and see two horizons -
one, Earth and sky, 
the other, cloudline and sky.
Photo: At Kadoorie Farm, Hong Kong

in the middle

Today is the birthday of a friend, 
so she is in the middle of two years, 
and at midday, we were together 
at a cafe on a corner.
Photo: Horse, Clareville, New Zealand
(My friend A loves horses.)

giddy after

I did a chore that I had been procrastinating. Done. So satisfying, almost giddy joy. 
Wanna dance?
Photo: A doll sent by H for a Hawaii theme party.

monday

Monday Monday, can't trust that day, so the song goes. Much of the day today seemed pre-rain, but not one drop fell.
Photo: The floor of an elevator/lift, Xian, China

that time of

It's getting to be the time of year
when we look for clarity 
on what has been. I think of
Rilke who said, Live the questions.
Photo: Construction site, Carterton, New Zealand

summer and winter

It's the first day of December. In one hemisphere, it's coming on Winter, and here in another, Summer's on its way. This street scene seems to holds both.
Photo: On Holloway Street, 
Carterton, New Zealand

see Rover

These door-handles seen
in New Zealand look 
like eyes in Nepal.
Photo: A Rover automobile, New Zealand

who's East?

In mah-jong, one of the four players is East. We used to play the game on the kitchen table. The set, maybe of ivory, was a gift from my grandmother, who purchased it on her round-the-world honeymoon almost one hundred years ago. I still love the clicking of the tiles.
Photo: Carved word on an outdoor toilet
Carterton Scenic Reserve, New Zealand

full and silvery and dusty

The Moon so bright and clear these nights.
The land and air, silvery.
I read recently that we are all stars, stardust. 
The atoms in the left hand may come from different stars than the atoms in the right.
Photo: In a shop window, Masterton, New Zealand

rainbow creeks

This creek runs so clean near our home,
unlike the dyed one created by a factory
near a city home in the 80s.
Photo: Creek, Tarathi, New Zealand

quiet ocean

In Russian, The Pacific Ocean 
is called the quiet ocean, 
and maybe these trees will sway
in a quiet wind, salty.
Photo: Carter Scenic Reserve, Wairarapa, New Zealand
Text: Thanks to Tim Jones and his essay posted on 21 November

the kiss

There we were - two people
and a lot of scenery.
Photo: Carter Scenic Reserve, New Zealand
Text: The beginning of 'The Kiss' by Elizabeth Nannestad (1956-)

when I am ten

When will I be ten again?
Photo: Me in 1972

lily happy

Once, at the flower sellers in a little alley, I saw a huge bucket full of purple-blue water lilies. I brought all forty or so of them to a friend who had invited me to her home for dinner. I didn't know it was her birthday. We were both surprisingly happy.
Photo: In a pond, Hong Kong
Thinking of A

we are all

We are all neighbo(u)rs, I have said, 
and today, Thanksgiving, I say it again.
Photo: Kerosene-soaked cotton wads, in preparation 
to launch a lantern into sky at Mid-Autumn Festival, 
my favo(u)rite holiday in Hong Kong. Thanksgiving 
is the holiday I like most from the U.S.A.

opinions and violets

Such a glorious summer island day here in the land of new zeal. I want to "drink long opinions full of violets."
Photo: At M and S Party, Auckland
Text: Excerpt from my poem 'The way we like it'
in Delicate Access, pg 114

in the light of

Happy are they who lie in the dream of their own existence, 

and see all things in the light of their own minds

Photo: At a party to celebrate love, Auckland

Text: William Hazlitt (1788-1830)

music makes blood-

Do you hear music? 
Tonight, a friend will sing her poems.

I heard her sing a few years ago and wrote a poem-portrait. Here is an excerpt:

She comes, trusts, prays, says we must make our life ‘big enough to make its own weather’, says maybe everything depends on this. This moment, this country.

She wears a superwoman t-shirt in paua colours, wants ‘hiphopcracy’ and no suffering, needs a ‘motherload’ of time to write.

There will be an amount of loss and darkness.

And enough love.

‘Music makes blood-
sugar. Leaveitplaying.’

Photo: Looking down at an alley, Hong Kong

Text: Excerpt of my poem for Hinemoana Baker, 

performing tonight with the New Zealand Poetry Society.
The words in quotes are written by Hinemoana.

tears and other tears

Tears are water, mucus and salt. 
But tears from sadness also have proteins 
that may release stress,
while tears from an open onion do not.
Photo: A container for shorn wool, Carterton, New Zealand

attention

The Real Prayers Are Not The Words, But The Attention That Comes First.
Photo: At A & P Show, Clareville Showgrounds, New Zealand
Text: Title of a poem by Mary Oliver

make words live

Erik Satie made several words 
for his different types of compositions.
Gnossienne is one. 
Two friends just made a book of the same name-word, and on the day it was unveiled: live Satie piano. 
Photo: The hand-printed title page of Gnossienne by Pat White and Catherine Day
On display in Masterton, New Zealand, until 2 Dec: 
http://www.aratoi.org.nz/exhibition/2012/10/gnossienne

yolk white blossom

'Eggflower' is what 
the Chinese call Frangipiani.
Photo: C at the engagement party 
of M and S, Auckland

coffee and kindness

How I needed the coffee 
at this roadside cafe.
And the owners were kind 
to let us eat our packed lunch too.
Photo: Fastlane Cafe, Waioru, New Zealand

swan and willow

The willow trimmed, 
like a horse, groomed.
It is swans that cut, eat 
the leaves so straight.
Photo: Willow at Western Springs
Auckland, New Zealand

sweet gift

Yesterday, we arrived home after a few days away.
Sweetness, as if the whole house, with cows and hens and cats and rooms and things,  
gift-wrapped. 
Photo: Wall with scraped-away handbills, Hong Kong