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

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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.

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