Heading west

by CD Richards

So you love the city— the lights and the crowds;
with cafes and theatres and fine sporting grounds.
Where buses and trains transport millions each day
to offices where they can drink their latte.
The plants in their cubicle prisons are rented,
OH&S will ensure they're unscented.

Huge factories belch as they poison the air
and water, so precious, is used without care.
Where each breath you take is worse than the last—
your lungs fill with toxins which cause you to gasp.
Where all that is done is achieved in a hurry
and brows bear deep creases from all of the worry.

But I cannot stomach a life such as that—
I covet a far different habitat.
While you cherish life a stone's throw from the sea,
the mountains and valleys are calling to me.
Where crystal clear streams wend through rolling green hills
and wildflowers sparkle in crisp winter chills.

Where cockatoo choruses ring from the trees
and Bottlebrush nectar is food for the bees.
Where stars shine like diamonds in stygian skies
and neighbourly helpfulness brings no surprise.
I need to head west now, please don't look askance—
it's time that I started my mauka advance.

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Usually, I make a concerted effort to only use exact end-rhymes (with allowances for regional differences). This time, I've allowed a few near-rhymes (and perhaps not-so-near) to creep in. I don't think it detracts too much, but I'd appreciate comments on whether or not you think it does.

Today's word:

mauka (adv.) inland. Heading away from the coast, in the direction of the mountains.

According to my source (see below), the Hawaiian language doesn't contain equivalent words for left and right. The only words it does have for direction are mauka (see above), and makai, which means seaward, in the direction of the coast.

My much-treasured Christmas present for 2017 is a book by Paul Anthony Jones: "The cabinet of linguistic curiosities". Each page contains a descriptive story about some obscure or archaic word. It occurred to me it would be a fun exercise to try and write, each day, a poem featuring the "word of the day" from the book.

Thanks for reading.

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A chapter in the book A Potpourri of Poetic Curiosities

Heading west

by CD Richards

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