6. Kipuka Pua’ulu

From Songs of the Islands (2005)

Heard, unseen, above the bending fern, 
breezes move atop ’o’hia trees.
Branches on the mountain slope
hold nectar, mist, and birds.

Deeper in the air is calm,
caught in dreams of resting limbs
and ferny moss on all their leaves,
like memory clinging to the trees.

And deeper still a place secured
by cloak of dark and spreading green,
and witnessed by the roof of stars:
a nest, and eggs, and eyes that guard.

Then spouting, gushing, rushing forth: 
from all its crackling corners,
all its swishing bends and turns,
LIFE – 
bursting out and swelling up
to meet the first bright, golden rays of radiant dawn.

Composed July 18, 2005 by Mark Feezell / DrFeezell.com
Included in Feezell’s poetry collection Songs of the Islands (2005)
Dedicated to the Public Domain (CC0 1.0) 2024

Download as an RTF file.

Image: Kalij Pheasant (DSC08891)

poetry, Songs of the Islands (2005)