After the tsunami: poems from the Pacific

Sia Figiel and one of her sons

Writer Sia Figiel and her children live in American Samoa. Like many others they fled to the mountains as the tsunami hit their island, and viewed afterwards the destruction it brought.

Sia sent her reflections on the day's traumatic events and her family's survival to the BBC website and shared her thoughts with her family and friends.

Some of those close to her have responded by turning her words into poetry and adding verses of their own.

---

The evening bells have just rung for evening prayer.

Our prayer tonight is

that of gratitude

that our family and neighbours are safe.

But our hearts

are with those families

"our hearts are with those families"

who can not say the same,

who will sleep tonight

without a son,

a daughter,

a mother,

a father,

an uncle,

an aunt,

a cousin,

a grandmother,

a grandfather.

Their loss is our loss.

Even the night birds feel it

~ Sia Figiel

---

How right you are. I love the way you articulated it....and so I write for you:

Even the night birds feel it

your words

"even in our disconnectedness"

swim the sky

and through

red feather clouds

and blood tears

i know that we are

connected

even in our disconnectedness

of space

~ CF Koya

---

To continue the prayer-poetry chain, I take your last lines and invite others to continue in prayer:

even in our disconnectedness

of space

the whole of Samoa is on its knees

"memories of the day before Wednesday"

Samoa in Aotearoa

Samoa in Fiji

Samoa in Amerika

Samoa in Hawai'i

praying and

swallowing salt tears

swallowing time

shoes and soles of feet

swallowing bones and lives and sheet

memories of the day before Wednesday

swallowing distance and space

swallowing our sea memories

to taste this pain

that is ours

~ Selina T. Marsh

---

I've added my part to the weaving, it follows Sia and the others, taking the pattern of repeating the last line of the previous poem...

To taste this pain that is ours

To remember one's heart is there

On that day in September

At the earliest hour

They watched the sea disappear

The bay empty like a valley

The sea rush back in a moan

Took the weaver from her fale

Took the child from warm arms

Took the elder from his family

Took the sleeper from her sleep

The blue deep, deep moana

There at the sacred heart of us

That echoes through each of us

When the panic madness falls

And the calm tide breathes

With all Samoa everywhere

With all of Tonga too

Remember your hearts there

And my heart too

~ Dan Taulapapa McMullin

---

And my heart too,

along with yours.

We are reminded

in the most brutal way

that we are all connected.

We are reminded

in the most brutal way,

that our relationship

with the ocean

is never

on our

own terms.

We are reminded

in the most brutal way

why dominion over nature

was never a part

of our epistemology.

We are reminded

in the most brutal way

why we know ourselves to be

simply a part

of a sacred continuum

of sacred relationships

where even

the ocean is alive,

where even

the night birds feel,

where even

the rocks have spirit,

where even

the blood red clouds

know why they are red.

We are reminded

in the most brutal way

the balance of life between

is sacred, va tapuia,

endlessly interconnected

across distance, space, time, species, life, death.

We are reminded

in the most brutal way

why long before

Christ arrived

on these shores

we have always been

a people of spirit

a people of faith.

~ Karlo Mila

---

A people of faith

A people

A people of

A people of faith

Faavae i le atua

They said

God will protect us

They said

Samoa is founded on God.

O children of the great and mighty Fofoaivaoese

Those of us who watch, and listen

from the great watery expanses of all the corners of the earth

hear Samoa's cry

Fofoaivaoese will not desert you Samoa

For even now the groundswell of love, support and prayers

Wave after wave after wave will crash on the very same tear-filled shores

which tore our worlds assunder

and will overcome, embrace and lift up our people, our aiga, our villages...our Samoa.

from despair and devastation

Do not grieve Samoa,

Outou, mataou, tatou...

With one hand we will hold on to the ancient words and wisdom of our ancestors

And with the other we will grasp the almighty power of Le Atua

As we people of faith

Calmly but surely...do what we have to do

Do

Do what

Do what we

Have to do

To remain...

People of faith

People of the Vao ese

We are here, watching, listening

And waiting.....

~ Melani Anae

---

Aueeee, our fathers cry

>Aueee, our mothers cry

Auee, our children cry

>Aue, we all cry

>We cry salted tears

>We cry silent fear

>We cry mournful alofa

>For our people

>We cry, Aue…. We cry!

~ Allan Alo

---

We cry, Aue…. We cry!

The strongest of the strong cry

Through the push and pull of the tides

And waves of pain and agony

that crash against the shore of our wounded hearts we cry, Aue...

We cry

We cry tears of blood

that flow deep through the sea of sorrow flow with the whispers of our soft prayers ascending above the clouds and settle beyond the depths of our soul. It is there that our tears have dried dried into a grain of salt a grain of salt called faith, the one thing we continue to hold on to for faith, isn't faith until it is all that we have left to hold on to it is what will wipe the tears of the strongest cry give us comfort in the night allow the warm rays of the sun to brush upon our skin push and pull the greatest memories of love with that of the tides heal the waves of wounded hearts lost in the sea of sorrow dry our tears and carry us into tomorrow...

~ Christina Pelesasa

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Are you from the area affected by the tsunami? Do you have a verse you would like to add to the poem?

If so, send them to us using the form below and we will publish a selection.

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