Rangitikei River Song
(in memory, Rob Newcombe)
A man can only
find himself when lost.
Such country, this,
where all men are lonely:
plateau, hawk and rivermist:
country where a man at last
might lose himself, an end of talk;
find that gaunt-faced other
man who stalks these ridges:
plateau, rivermist and hawk:
no longer keeping eye
for crumbling edges,
lovers or the weather.
Listening, rather, to the river:
hawk and high plateau,
rivermist below.
'Rangitikei River Song' from Doubtless: New and Selected Poems (Craig Potton Publishing, 2008), Sam Hunt 2008, used by permission of the author. Recording from the Aotearoa New Zealand Poetry Sound Archives (2004).