Rachel Hawkins-Crockford
mountains
we are driving in McKenzie country
mountains riding above the road
washed clean in the cold air
I am a thirst
buoyed up by wonder
hungry for more
the ice-cold turquoise lakes
the russet leaves
the aquamarine sky
I could be lost in this landscape
if it weren’t for the sound of
the song on the radio and you
solid here beside me
Commentary
In this poem, I enjoyed revisiting a journey I took more than 15 years ago through the landscapes of the South Island of New Zealand. Pregnant with my first child I was leaving the home I had made there and returning to my birth city Auckland(the North Island) in order to have my child there surrounded by my family. The car trip, almost the full length of both islands, was pregnant with all sorts of possibility and poignancy and I re-experienced some of that as I wrote this.
