After all, stones remember
the opening and closing of oceans
the thrust of volcanoes; they remember,
in their sediments, ancient creatures and trees,
rivers, lakes and glaciations.

After all
stone is the firmness
in the world. It offers landfall,
a hand-hold, reception. It is
a founding father with a mother-tongue.
You can hear it in the gravity
of your body. You can hear it
with the bones of your body.
You can hardly hear it.

See that line of coast...
See the ranges ranging...

they seem to be
saying

after you,
after you,

after all...

Dinah Hawken was born in Hawera in 1943 and now lives in Paekākāriki on the Kapiti Coast. Her first book, It has no Sound and is Blue, won the 1987 Commonwealth Poetry Prize for Best First Time Published Poet. Of her six collections of poetry, four have been finalists for the New Zealand Book Awards, including The leaf-ride, published by Victoria University Press in 2011. Her poem ‘stone’ is from the Holloway Press book, page : stone : leaf, a collaboration with the stone sculptor John Edgar and published in 2013.

Poem source details >

Links

Victoria University Press author page
New Zealand Book Council writer file
New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre writer file