To Peter Hooper, 1969

To Peter Hooper

To Peter Hooper
This is my journey
Towards an Elegy
(and other poems)
Thank God
CHCH THE NAGS HEAD PRESS – PRESS 1969

Suddenly time
Suddenly
ran out, fire
time
in the seam
engulfed the past – the
settlement was doomed,
silence and smoke inhabited
the valley
Cavern and chasm
deepen yet as coal
burns in the belly of the
mountains, and the years
crumble the chimney stacks,
the copper wire
turns green and sinks in the mullock
rust eats the boilers. No moonscape
holds more loneliness, more threat
what means  this death on the
the mountain only
what lived
before man came survives
Gulls on the plateau
squabble above their nests, the manuka
SPREADS A WHITE MAT OF flowers, the scented flax
mutters by the seepage hole, AND IN THE BREEZE
THE LONG LEAVED ORCHID TREMBLES PURPLE
BELLS

1969 Written paintings and drawings: Colin McCahon
Barry Lett Galleries
Auckland
6/10/1969 - 17/10/1969

The text is Peter Hooper’s poem, ‘Burning Mine, Stockton’ published in Journey Towards an Elegy and other poems, Nag’s Head Press, Christchurch, 1969.