Hawaiian Columbus

An excerpt from Tropic Landfall: The Port of Honolulu
by Clifford Gessler

And so the long ships sailed from Havaiki:
in the purple night they sailed. The twin canoes
were bound together with cords. The mat sails
swelled with the wind that blew from the southern stars,
the White Stars that Spring from the Root of the World.
Hawii-loa
called to Makalii the Navigator,
pointing the red star that glowed in the eastern sky:
"Follow that star," he said.

The moon rose, and the moon sank,
the wind freshened, the wind fell,
the waves crested and rolled, and flattened, and lay still.
Hawaii-loa's heart swelled as he heard
the beat of paddles, the crackling of mat sails,
plash and surging of sea, whistling of wind,
and over it all the hollow boom of drums
and the thin chant of the dark canoemen hurtling down
the sharp blue slopes and valleys of the sea.

The moon rose and the moon sank,
the moon swelled and the moon lessened,
the wind freshened, the wind fell,
Hawaii-loa's heart lept with the forward leap of the long canoes.
his heart beat to the beat of the broad paddles, the thud of the gourd drums,
his heart sang with the song of the dark canoemen
and his eyes shone with the gleam of the red star

while seven times the moon lessened and swelled
and day by day the wind freshened and fell
and night by night the stars whirled and sank
and day by day the waves crested and rolled
and flattened and lay still.

Hawaii-loa looked where the deep bowls
of poi thinned and failed, one by one.
Hawaii saw the fat heaps of yams
dwindle, the gourds of fresh water empty,
the last pig, the last fowl slaughtered, the last nut
drained and scraped dry, the canoemen falter and tire.

Hawaii-loa spoke to the priest Laau:
"Pray, Laau! Pray to the gods for rain!"
The clouds loomed and the wind blew,
the clouds gathered, the rain fell,
the fish rose to the hook shaped of shell.
The canoemen ate and drank, and Hawaii-loa
marked how the birds flew, far overhead,
into the eastern sky.

And in the new moon the haunting smell
of wild white ginger drifted down the breeze,
promising mountains; in the dawn they saw
a cloud-shape on the horizon to the east,
and in the heat of noon
a green land under a snow-roofed mountain dome.
"Hawaii's land!" shouted the dark canoemen.
"Hawaii's land," said Makalii the Navigator.
"Hawaii's land," said Hawaii-loa,
"and the bay Hilo, for we found it under the new moon."

I just heard the weekly fireworks go off, time to go......