Verse--Old & New

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19379, 17 July 1937, Page 10

Verse--Old & New

Tutcpuaki. From school times I have known you But now the bugle sounds; You’ve served God, your people, and country, The Master called you Kiwa’s bounds. Never the pillow to slip on, Never a moving bed; Just a sleeping across vast Kiwa As to Te Horo-i-Wairua you sped. We saw you there at your last parade, And many an eye was wet, As the soldiers stood for you to pass, And the crowds with grief and regret. We followed you. in the slow, sunny miles A long, long, mourning train; Piled high the flower emblems They helped some of the pain. They laid my humble blossoms In the casket, by your side; To dust they'll crumble with you, Over Kiwa’s ocean tide. The soldiers dropped the poppy Blooms, The sunbeams fell athwart; I dropped green leaves with “Haerera” Takitimu; Tairawhiti, I thought. Y'ou served your people; your country, God; ‘ And in Aotearoa once did- dwell; You are happy still, old school-mate So pass on. For all is well. j Mary Ramsey Elljen Blair, Kaiti, Gisborne. Aotearoa. Who has not seen the green hills lift their heads i Or snow-capped mountains looming to the sky? Who has not seen the kowhai’s golden boughs Where languid lakes of deep blue vaiers lie?

Who has not watched a southern sunset fade, s And clothe the land in misty twilight hours? Or seen New Zealand’s lovely Christmas tree Aflame with all her vivid crimson i flowers? 1 Who has not heard the tui’s flutelike call? Waft out upon the stillness of the air, And seem to till the bush-clad glade with song, Ai d leave its music long to linger there. Wnt has not seen the moonlight « n the sea, ' And heard the sigh of wavelets on the sh-v-e? I Tun vast Pacific Ccian stretching oei Is one more gem among New senland’s store. The mystic fury of the thermal z* -no Where high into the air the geysers p]j#y f The low, deep, oer.e sounds the blowholes make, The bubbling of the mudpools night arc! day. Fisted here in rrvre waters of the Fast Ti.ito islands tie, caressed by wild and sea, .... Lie fllled with all such beauty, still untold ~ “New Zealand stands m ah hei Majesty.” -•Florence McK. Smart, Gisborne.