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JAMES K. BAXTER'S OTAGO WORLDS Lawrence Jones
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Page 33
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| The black strings of kelp are riding on the tide's cold
virile breast.
At Goat Island at Long Beach the poet hears 'the sea god's voice' echo off the cliffs and turns away from 'the young girls in their pink blouses' to the liberating power of the sea: Blessed be The sea god's hammer that will break Dome after dome the cages of the land And set the dead men free. The sea cave, with its 'kelp smell, / Sea smell, the brown bladdered womb' is tempting, but he finally must turn away from comfort to face the sea itself. On the beach at Aramoana, the poet finally turns away even from Gea to 'where the black swells begin' and beyond that to where the serpent current flows out of the harbour gates, long- flowing, strongly tugging at the roots of the world. For the sea is the image of death, the separating and dividing void, which nevertheless is the source of my joy. The serpent current betrays the world by delivering it into the hand of God, yet man is not a creature of earth, his renewal can only come out of the storm, out of the void, out of the depths of God. And the serenity of God's silence is the answer to man's prayer. |
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