Poem: Equinox
One of a pair written for my Last Supper station at the 2006 Opawa Baptist Easter Journey. Accompanying photograph: Cashel Mall at The Crossing. Music: Dido, Rhian Sheehan.
My theme was quietness in transience. I picked a fast food motif for the Supper table. Trying to make a place for reflection and rest in the rush and the hurry, before the oncoming darkness of winter and the Passion. Also trying to anchor my spirituality in the discrete here and now of Christchurch, Easter 2006, where New Zealand's inverted seasons turn a Northern Hemisphere spring festival into a dirge of autumn; how we confront an alien land's church calendar here must necessarily adapt. This poem reflects the physicality of a moment in time. I still love it.
Equinox
Christchurch at Easter
is a rain-slick labyrinth
daylight saving's cut out
and we're stumbling into autumn dark
the clock ticks, sunset closing in
shops shut early
traffic backs up Moorhouse Ave
Cashel Mall fades, grey to black
now and here's a window
just one moment
as the busker pauses
and the dance floor breathes
to steal such quiet
as we can
make spaces
in between the notes
drink coffee on Colombo Street
and listen
Poem: God of the Streets
One of a pair written for my Last Supper station at the 2006 Opawa Baptist Easter Journey. Accompanying photograph: Cashel Mall at The Crossing. Music: Dido, Rhian Sheehan.
My theme was quietness in transience, with the motif of a fast food restaurant. The other poem was a reflection of Christchurch at Easter as a time and place. This was its counterpart, a contemplative prayer. I have spent too many hours walking the streets of Christchurch. It's a walkable city. But there can be a great sense of absence when winter closes in. And although I feel the inward call to meditation, there is a drivenness inside me that finds it hard to mentally detach and slow down.
I came so close to using The Exponents' 'Christchurch (In Cashel Street I Wait)' as background music, but it was sadly just too loud. Dido's 'Do You Have A Little Time' and Rhian Sheenan's 'Sunshine' won instead. I sneaked an Exponents reference into the poem instead.
God of the Streets
God of the streets
God of the arcades
God of the car parks
God of the escalators
God of the rush and timesheet
God of swept hours and broken minutes
God of appointments and interviews
God of fast food and slow traffic
I hear the quiet calling me
I ache to answer it
I reach for time and miss
My soul is full of noise
I can only offer you
A temporary table
By the window looking out
On a construction site
I'd build you a cathedral
But you said: I'd rather have you
