Go to National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa Go to Te Ao Hou homepage
No. 68 (1970)
Previous Section | Table of Contents | Next Section
– 54 –

ADVENT

Two ramparts;
flowers of fire
and the steel
cutting edge of sea
confronted us.

We raised
earth hungry eyes
to cliffs that crumbled
broken clay
on empty beaches
and knew
that Promised Islands
were not figments
of a fevered mind
but in our reach.

The sharp prow
sliced the frosty sand;
laughing, we leapt
among the flames,
tore off the pinions
of the past
and claimed the land
by flaunting
fire flowers
on our brows.

Kathleen Grattan