by Momoe Malietoa von Reiche
In the cool
Of morning
Moving waters fall
Silently seeking
Pathways to the sea
Blue veined
Crisscross a fractured landscape
Nervous leftovers of
Cultural powerlines that
Carved vertical earths
Into umbered lakes
Reflecting
Deceptive silver linings
In the sun
Shades of a troubled
Paradise
Lost in camouflaged lushness
Azure oceans of time
Fly backwards
Past contemporary textures
Now embedded deeply
Into this processed woven land.
Photo: Patricia Davidson, 2014
About the Poem:
If there was harmony once in Samoa’s natural lands, it is gone forever. The balance and fragility of these landscapes have undergone severe fragmentation through natural disasters and through human failure in maintaining the contemporary environment.
.
Back to Vol. 7, Issue 1 | Read the Table of Contents | Like Our Stories? Please Donate!
Papali‘I Momoe Malietoa von Reiche is a Samoan author, artist, and educator. Her published books of poetry include Solaua, a Secret Embryo (1974), Pao Alimago on Wet Days (1979), Alaoa, above the Gully of Your Childhood (1986), and Tai, the Heart of a Tree (1989).
