Doug Poole
Gogolo
To K.M.
You, are the black butterfly
gracing our sleeping mouths
your words retrace movements
beneath the feet of ancestors
folds, to sit within cinematic Va
You, are the blue taupou,
her courage to shake the
frigates from her back
finger tips shattered pearls;
words the gogolo of tidal rain
are you listening to the singing scales of Va
before Tangalo-a-lagi split the stone
unimpeded by gravity, the thin ear
You, break the shackles of oppression,
giving Rangatira expression
partaking in your heart; words
from your open hands, soaring.
Doug Poole is of Samoan and European descent. He resides in Waitakere City, Auckland with his partner Anja and three children. He is the current e-publisher and editor of poetry e-zine Blackmail Press (blackmailpress.com). Doug has been e-published in Trout, nzepc: OBAN 06, nzepc: Fugacity, Stalking Tongue Vol 2: Slamming the Sonnet, Soft Blow, Nexus Collection and many other electronic publications. Doug has been published in Niu Voices: Contemporary Pacific Fiction 2006 (Huia Publishers), and Papertiger 4 New World Poetry CD 2004, edited by Mark Pirie. Doug’s latest collaboration with painter Penny Howard, Atārangi Whenua: Shado Land is exhibiting in Whangarei in October and Auckland November 2009.
Poole writes: “The poem was written for Karlo Mila. The poem speaks of her standing in Pacific and Contemporary New Zealand literature and her standing in the community and wider New Zealand. Karlo’s compassion for young people’s views, her understanding and accessibility to younger readers in her audience, is one of the many Taonga in her writing.”