Kohana Au (2012 Poem In Your Pocket)

When the beat drops

by Tamara Woods

Instant connection
His hands banging drums and
Her hips catching beats.

Fingertips raised skyward
Asking for directions to some pagan god.
He wonders if she smells like the rain
Gently kissing her upturned face.

Music links them
Fluid ocean and steadfast beach,
He wanted her to wash up against his shore
Taking pieces of him with her.
Ebbing and flow.
Linked.

She moves like the steel drums
Birthed her years ago
In a swept away village
Where sun-kissed brows were
Stained with wolf berries
For life and fertility.

Molten golden fire strands catching the breeze
Her feet loses their slipper shackles
Leaving life prints in the sand
Leading him to her.

It would be so easy
To commune with spirits
At her side.
Giving praise to Pele
For surely her ancestors were born
From lava and tears
Leaving legacy on her crown.

And then the music stopped.

Tamara Woods was raised (fairly happily) in West Virginia, where she began writing poetry at the age of 12. She has previous experience as a newspaper journalist, an event organizer, volunteer with AmeriCorps and VISTA, in addition to work with people with disabilities. She has used her writing background to capture emotions and moments in time for anthologies such as Empirical Magazine, her blog PenPaperPad and writing articles as a full-time freelance writer. She is a hillbilly hermit in Honolulu living with her Mathemagician.

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Drama Dance (Hula-ʻō-lapa)

by Kohana Au

Let us dance the lore of the sea currents and cloud-forms.
How they meet, move and separate.

Let us dance how the stars and waves appear,
and the course of the wind as it froths the waters.

Let us dance to the motions of the leaves and blossoms
swaying in a particular wind.

Let us move like dancing trees, swimming fish and shifting clouds.

Let us dance as filtered light, in the sea,

in the forests and the shadows that it casts.

Let us dance was we were told by Aliʻiwahineokamalo (The shadow on the moon.)

Let us dance the way of Kū and Hina.

Let us dance the way to tell the stories we were taught by Laʻamaikahiki, Maluaka, Kilinoe and Paliula.

Let us dance on the land and in the sea for all life and love.

Blow the conch…Play the kaeke drum, blow the flute, begin the kilu.

Come perform the Hula…let us dance.

Kohana Au has long been a writer associated with a number of projects throughout the Hawaiian Islands. A student and lover of all that is Polynesia–from New Zealand to Hawaiʻi–he shares his knowledge and understanding of these wonderful cultures. The poem is an excerpt from his book Tales of the Mermaids of Waiahuakua.

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