Kohana Au (2012 Poem In Your Pocket)

Asleep at the Feet of King Kamehameha

O homeless,
Asleep at the feet
of others
Asleep at the feet
of so called success
frozen in time.

What happened?
Do you wish to draw power
from the past?
To set matters right
in your life?

Would a gift of money
counterwise contribute
To your success?

The passerbys,
Have they learned of your plight?

Do they know of who you are?
my voice expelled, and yet you are
as motionless as the stone.

Your silence describes all,
What will you become tomorrow,
After the osmosis of power?

Will history give you a gift
she has not given to me?

I have worked hard all my life
And never received such.
Perhaps you will,
And thus level the field.

So perhaps,
eye to eye,
on your feet,
we will speak tomorrow.

As a creative technologist, designer, author and illustrator, Capt. Jeff has created billboards to broadcast commercials to corporate identities, formed four corporations, three of which (Creative Intelligence, Inc., Shattuck Marine, Inc., Ocean Tiger, Inc.), he takes a seat on the board of directors. An author and media outlet contributor, Jeff is pleased to be able to contribute to the body of knowledge that belongs to every person now and in the future. Mostly he loves writing and illustrating his childrens books. Visit him on www.dreamtodesign.com.

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Drama Dance (Hula-ʻō-lapa)

by Kohana Au

Let us dance the lore of the sea currents and cloud-forms.
How they meet, move and separate.

Let us dance how the stars and waves appear,
and the course of the wind as it froths the waters.

Let us dance to the motions of the leaves and blossoms
swaying in a particular wind.

Let us move like dancing trees, swimming fish and shifting clouds.

Let us dance as filtered light, in the sea,

in the forests and the shadows that it casts.

Let us dance was we were told by Aliʻiwahineokamalo (The shadow on the moon.)

Let us dance the way of Kū and Hina.

Let us dance the way to tell the stories we were taught by Laʻamaikahiki, Maluaka, Kilinoe and Paliula.

Let us dance on the land and in the sea for all life and love.

Blow the conch…Play the kaeke drum, blow the flute, begin the kilu.

Come perform the Hula…let us dance.

Kohana Au has long been a writer associated with a number of projects throughout the Hawaiian Islands. A student and lover of all that is Polynesia–from New Zealand to Hawaiʻi–he shares his knowledge and understanding of these wonderful cultures. The poem is an excerpt from his book Tales of the Mermaids of Waiahuakua.