Excavations at Redcliffs 1958. Madeline Reid

EXCAVATIONS AT REDCLIFFS...1958

THE crater steams, hill-ringed,

The volcanic bubble bursts,

A shell of stone holds silence,

Patterned by wind's hymn, gulls cry,

The sea's millenial murmuring

And no man by.

We found a cave at nightfall,

Built a fire, named our dead,

Mourning their swift souls' flight.

Stone walls contain despair,

Ash-covered hopes grow cold,

Outside a north wind roars,

Stars shudder,

Sleepers groan

Red cliffs bulk and curve towards slow-breathing waters,

Upon the cave's sea floor careless centuries housekeep with sand and shards,

Within a mass, a bone, a comb, a blade

Court the bright spade.

Time passes; here is a claw upon my hand,

A shadow cast time by some giant bird,

A hook of bone,

And look; a wooden head with eyes that watched a people die,

Sees now the Church of England Hall and washing on the line.

Madeline Reid

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This appeared in The Press at the time of the excavaton of the cave directed by Roger Duff and attended by members of the Archaeological Association. Sue Bulmer recorded the Auckland group's experience of the dig in a verse of her song "The Woolley Wheeler Way". The wooden head referred to is a godstick head found in the work.

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