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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 11, Issue 2 (May 1, 1936)

Pipiriki

Pipiriki.

Graven in the very being
Of a man are memories
That survive the joy of seeing.
Let me limn you one of these.
Let me write as it was written
All along the banks that lay
Where the Maori poles had bitten
Patterns in the sombre clay.
Pipiriki, Pipiriki,
Did you harbour elf and faun
Was there word of ghostly tiki
When I woke that silver dawn?
All night long the water churning
As each breasted rapid passed
Had bespoken upward yearning
To a bourne. The trees stood massed
Pipiriki, Pipiriki,
Miles from where those willows sweep
By the town where many a tiki
Fell from those who fell on sleep.
Pipiriki, time has sundered
Thee and me. What Sabbath strange.
Once we shared. A boy, I wondered
At the things that never change.
Pipiriki, Pipiriki,
Seed and harvest, foe and friend.
One old tribesman like a tiki
Graven haunts me to the end.