Across the courtyard

Abstract

This poem is a tribute -a tohu aroha -to one teacher's visioning of the future as she stands, waiting for the speeches to start, before the meeting house, Te Ao Hurihuri, on Te Kohingamarama marae (courtyard) at the University of Waikato. Her thoughts, jostling for birth in the dark, agitated territory between public expectations and private anxieties, float away to other courtyards, like the Tainui Bridge at Rahui Pakeka (Huntly), and beyond.