2nd place winners for their jointly-penned poem, published poets section of the 2020 Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature Robert Burns Poetry Competition

Ōtepoti Edinburgh o th’ South

‘Tis hunners moot oor daz’d fareweel
tae Alba, greetin’ at her breist
We lea' tae find a free-er kirk
an’ land aplenty tae be blesst

Wi’ tarred ropes stow’d, oor hotchin hame
atossed athourt the oceans she,
whiles doon aneath, ilka puir fowk
boak painch and bones intae the sea

Tae hark'n ane mare skirl o’ pipes
the moornfu’ sound o’ Pibroch
The stirrin drones dae thrum ma sowl
aboon the smirr- reek’d sea loch

Alas, I sawna Teuchter here
nae birken, aik or rowan reid
Strange trees mairch ow’r the rugg'd braes
birds chirm o lanesome times aheid

Fae bonie Scotia's lov'n airms
ma stoondin hert aches awfu’ sair
The nicht weeps late til anguish’d dawn
awbeit feel her love nae mare

Shackled here, Ah’ll bide ma stour
dule-wrap’d like stooks wi ribbon
Slicht Heav’n’s backarts-fronted staurs
tha’ fire-flacht on Dunedin

Growthie treasures claimed I wi richts
frae gardiens sail’d afore me
I scriev’d the pact an toil’d this land
Built high my mirror’d city

Th’ switch frae ling tae flax an fern
I thought was roots new countrie
Lik’ sea maw tae th’ grace’d toroa
Ne’er ken wha walk’d afore me

Ne’er ken wha call’d afore me

Ne’er ken the caul afore me

I send out a karaka
over littered ground
to you
standing
at the gates

imbued with tupuna
this voice not my own
is woven within
rising intonations
that seek out your wairua

my hands shake
at the kaha of us
travelling back
along coiled ropes
of frayed whakapapa
lost and unspoken
yet etched within our bones

what is known is greater
than any book
my grandmother
was excluded from
or the missed connections
with our absent fathers

I send out a karaka
and welcome you in
to roots that go deep
into whenua
enriched with our blood.

Notes:
Whilst this may usually be a ‘one poet per poem’ competition, we have made a conscious decision - as settler and mana whenua - to collaborate together on this entry, as a way to acknowledge te Tiriti o Waitangi and the diverse cultural narratives within Ōtepoti Dunedin. It acknowledges past, present, and future and our commitment to takata whenua. Burns’ poem ‘Here’s a Health to them that’s Awa’ was written post 1792, when Burns’ most politically charged poems were written. It was a celebration of the Whig Parliamentary opposition in London, where Burns thumbs his nose at the banning of seditious literature. Sedition may include any sort of commotion that is not directly violent or illegal, and so our poem is in the same vein – peacefully intended to ruffle feathers for a better, free er future for Aotearoa New Zealand.