Chatham Island related Poems

In 1975 Sen went as a Bahá´í 'pioneer' to the Chatham Islands, an isolated group of islands about 800 km west of the South Island of New Zealand, with a population of approximately 600. He lived in the main town, Waitangi until 1978 and was initially treated as an odd-ball by the islanders, living in his tent, but gradually won their confidence as he went from ditch-digger to harbour master.

Karore and Ranga-ika are places on the south coast of the main Chatham Island (here called 'cat island'), where stone cliffs fall hundreds of feet to the sea. The level unfenced land behind is known as the 'clears'. Mangere is an uninhabited Island nearby.


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Ait Burn and Worm's Turn

About the Chatham Islands where Sen lived in the late 1970's. Ait is a small island.
This poem was published in Feeding Harbour (1984) and printed in Arts Dialogue, March 1995.


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Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet

Mangere is an island of rocks visible from Chatham Island and the title of this poem relates to Courbet's self-portrait, the painting titled 'The Meeting'. This poem was published in Feeding Harbour (1984) and printed in Arts Dialogue, March 1995.


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Gulls

When I first arrived on the Chatham Islands, for a short time I had no job and no contacts.
This poem was published in Feeding Harbour (1984).


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Cords

Inspired by the Chatham Islands where Sen lived in the late 1970's. This poem was published in Feeding Harbour (1984) and printed in Arts Dialogue, March 1995.


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Outpost

The Chatham Islands lie far, far from land, with a climate and landscape reminiscent of Scotland. This poem was published in Feeding Harbour (1984)


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Silt on the Nairn

The Nairn is the only significant river on the Chatham Islands. Because it flows through peat country, the water is deep brown but not muddy. It flows into the sea at Waitangi, which I poetically translate as the place of weeping waters, although the place may well be named after a burial mound just behind the dunes. This poem was published in Feeding Harbour (1984)