Her debut collection of poems is called night swimming.
All these poems are easy to digest. Piahana-Wong avoids being sentimental and cynical.
Seasons, relationships and the sea mean a lot to this new young talent.
Matariki concludes:
I walk as if my passing matters
I walk as a witness
I let my tears fall
spiral down my arms
fall from the ends of my fingers
Anoint the earth with the salt of the sky
And I think of the words of my tupuna -
Tukua mai he kapu ng?
oneone ki a au hai tangi
Send me a handful of earth
that I may weep over it
night swimming is full of brilliant moments that give a new sense of understanding.
A reader will find the gold very easily in this little collection in which she gives voice to her Maori, Chinese and English ancestry.
- Hamesh Wyatt lives in Bluff. He reads and writes poetry.
