Hopurangi Songcatcher By Robert Sullivan

Three birds flew from me:

a sparrow from my chest
a tui out my throat
a piwaiwaka from my thigh

they flew to see my father
to let him know I am well

— from ‘Tamatea Kai-ariki: ‘Three birds flew from me’

After rejoining social media, Robert Sullivan wrote and posted a poem a day over two and a half months – the poems collected in Hopurangi—Songcatcher. Inspired by the cyclical energies of the Maramataka, these poems see the poet re-finding himself and his world – in the matauranga of his kuia from the Ngati Hau and Ngati Kaharau hapu of Ngapuhi; in his mother’s stories from his Ngati Manu hapu at Karetu; in the singing and storytelling at Puketeraki Marae, home of his father’s people of Kati Huirapa, Kati Mamoe, Waitaha and Kai Tahu Whanui in Te Tai o Araiteuru; and in the fellowship of friends on Facebook. 

Tihei mauri ora!