The Thursday Poem
2 May 2019
Kaka Point
On the South Otago Coast, Kaka Point is most famously known as the place where Tom and Dorrie Gold had their cribs and crafted there together family memories that have become priceless anchors in the lives of their children and grandchildren. Hone Tuwhare, NZ poet also spent his latter days here. Filmed by Dorothy Jean. Set decorated by Heather Maxwell with her painting of the famed beach and lighthouse. For Tom Gold. Words below.
Kaka Point
I love this place
where the curve of the coast
skirts the rocky outcrops
that slide down to the southern ocean,
where the heaving, swelling, pumping
line upon line of white water
strikes shorewards
with an urgency that
has always mattered.
And always the roaring rush
of churning waves
carries on the air
and breaks the silence of solitude
where a hundred or more cribs stand,
drawing their masters
from the hinterland.
One can easily bury here
all thought of going back
to the burning heat
of the crowded streets
of the suburbs that have no end.
But for only one day more
I’ll caress this shore
where one before me walked
and in this moment
I’ll lend my ears to the swirling surf
and I’ll listen to it talk.
Mark Raffills