FEATURED POET: Jane Crosbie-Carrig
Jane Crosbie-Carrig is a Māori/Caucasian woman, given up for adoption in infancy, raised in a white culture that rejected her “otherness.” Expatriate from New Zealand, now living in Colorado. She is a sister, mother, wife, dreamer, survivor, believer in hope and aroha (aka Love).
Leche Mama (2012)
Leche Momma
Expresso Papa
Mocha Baby,
What a frothy triangle.
Poor triaged Baby, brought up by a bitter Tea blend
Of unhappy, sipping, selfish, curdled people.
Baby wants to dance to a different beat,
Not the refined foxtrot,
But sweet wild waltz
Of Celt and distant drums
Heard across crash of waves.
Dream dreams of passion inside sterile white walls,
Genuflect to distant, Crucified God.
Run wide, run far, run wrong, but steer away, Mocha Girl.
Fall and stumble,
Pick yourself up and keep running,
Find those different stars;
Your compass must find a truer North.
The Koru, a spiral based on the unfurling silver fern fond of the ponga plant, symbolizes new life, growth, strength, and peace.
Wahine (2020)
Wahine[i] stands, soft keening on evenings’ edge,
her pain on the wind,
As the loss of her homeland, her iwi[ii] and whenua[iii]
Pull tight across her heart.
Her family, the root and center of her heart, now rests in a foreign land,
Yet the tether remains,
Moana[iv] calls to her each time she is near the great salt sea of the Pacific;
It calls to her,
To carry her back to Aotearoa[v], the Land of the Long white cloud.
Kia ora kotou katoa[vi],
Welcome, welcome back my bisected child,
My child of two races,
Welcome to a place of reckoning.
Child of both races, never fully belonging to either
But fully loved by Beloved, your anchor.
Turituri.[vii]
******************
[i] Woman
[ii] Tribe
[iii] Homeland
[iv] Sea
[v] New Zealand
[vi] Welcome, Hello to you all,
[vii] Hush.
If you’d like to engage with Jane about poetry, Maori culture, and her journey to peace, please email her: jane.carrig@gmail.com.
