Maori Oven. W. Hart-Smith
Maori Oven
.............
You cut into the warm earth
and shatter the dead shells into bright fragments.
Why does a piece of obsidian, a bone pick
sharp as yesterday, give, you so much
pleasure? Leave it alone, Pakeha,
leave it alone!
(Last six lines)
From On the Level, Mostly Canterbury Poems W. Hart-Smith Printed Timaru Herald 1950. Maori Oven's opening line sets a context of excavating into turf with a shovel. Another poem in the book is entitled 'Cave Paintings".
The book's cover featured a reproduction of a cave drawing by Theo Schoon.
Hart-Smith was a sometime adult education tutor in Timaru and gave assistance to Schoon. He was British born and resident at times in Australia and New Zealand. He produced many volumes of poetry.
