Two Poems by Rowley Habib

Te Ao Hou, September 1959, Page 16

Two Poems by Rowley Habib TO THE HAND OF WOMAN The Plea of a young writer Take my hand and lead me through the thicket To the mountain's crest, where the snow Is pure. So my thoughts be like the snow And below let me see the ocean and the open Land caressed with mists of haziness Azure and wide. Like the world before me Ready to be drunken by these eyes And more yet. Lay me back on the snows pure Blanket of whiteness, my being forever Conscious of your nearness. My nostrils Full of the scent of you. O take my hand. I am lost without The hand of woman soft and full Of tenderness. Ever yielding to the passion of my call Take my hand for should an inspiration Come I'll be like something flat and very dead

TO MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS We were not so far apart you and I When the thunder broke from the blackened sky We were not so far apart And when the echo rolled away Deep down in the slanting day We dreamed. Or when the lightning struck Behind the drawn blind Not I alone rushed heaven-wards In the wake it left behind No, we were not so far apart, we When the waters rushed with mad glee Down the garden path Mine was not the only dream Washed beyond the pantry window Like some desire in a far off flooded stream