The Waterman Chronicles - a gallery of works by New Zealand artist, potter and poet John Waterman
a selection of poetry by john waterman :: nz artist, potter, poet

 

 

NZ Poetry by John Waterman: 'Betrayal'

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In the hearth of the heart you will find Papatuanuku theThunderer
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A collection of New Zealand poetry on the Human Shadow
by John Waterman
These poems are dedicated to my ancestors and my children
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Native Americans have, and live in, a domain they call the
'long body'. It is the sum of one's life on earth from the moment one is born to the moment one dies.

My poetry is a journey into my own long body - consequently the doors to our societal and cultural shadows are also thrown open to investigation.

These shadows are not easily visible. They exist in the basement below the basement - a journey that popular culture is usually loathe to take. It is a dimension of risk and opportunity that, once explicated, allows us to look at the world through new and different eyes.

It is much more comfortable to worship the bright and shiny in our temples of desire than it is to confront the question, for example, of who supplied the land-mine that blew the legs off an innocent 14-year-old child in some forsaken part of the planet.

We are the society we live in - nothing more, nothing less.
Them is us. We are the other - we are all responsible for what have created and continue to create because, like the Bishop and Copernicus's telescope, we will not look.

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