Passage to Fiji

A literary poetry collection in-progress

tracing a deeply personal spiritual journey shaped by five years living on Koro Island, Fiji

Deep Forest World

Enormous eyes: the owl emergent

settles on a bough of a rain tree

across a rivulet or perhaps a moist,

vine-covered bed, her voice,

though silent, a wanting/warning

to know who I am in this deep forest

world that has come and gone

over billions of years, I who am flying

into a future of my own making.

. . .

Leaving behind much of her former life, including the pace, noise, and technology of the modern world, the speaker arrives in Fiji carrying feelings of loss and uncertainty about this dramatic move. What unfolds across the collection is a gradual deepening through immersion in the natural world and the quiet rhythms of island life.

Before leaving home for Fiji, the poet dreams "a horizon / where a boat with yellow sails / plies purple waters." Her mother's passing and the flat-lining of her work and her husband's work enable the move.

Once on the island, silence grows around her, "a bower // a kind of scrubbing / the rain forest washing," preparing her for the peace and beauty that is to come.

Many beings accompany her spiritual quest:

Housemates

They love mud, speak mud,

drone a tune while they work.

Mud daubers with three-part,

black-and-yellow bodies

hum the grass grazing for mud,

scoop up water along the drive,

fashion stuccoed nests under the eaves.

. . .

A grist of wasps whooshes

to the window, flying stationary,

waiting for me. One thing

a doorway into the next.

Our view of the island

Our view of Dere Bay

More to come . . . !