Sailing To The Island.

The ferry from Auckland to Waiheke takes only about half an hour. On the top, windy deck on a clear day I could make out Great Barrier Island outlined on the distant horizon. Great Barrier, where I had that holiday and met a friendly Taiwan family. Strangers at first sight, there were soon no barriers. Today the ferry berthed at Oneroa wharf close to town where I strolled at random until I chanced on an edition of Ginsberg's poems. The slim book had the poem's text on one page and black and white drawings on the facing one. Right away I was taken by Allen's long lines going right across the page, overflowing; and his long complex sentences minus punctuation. I had not read such stanzas by any New Zealand poet. As the bus to Palm Beach negotiated hills I read 'Howl', a long poem in three sections. It begins, ' I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness...' and ends with a talk to his friend who is a patient in Rockland hospital, 'Carl Solomon! I'm with you in Rockland where you're madder than I am'... 'I'm with you in Rockland where we are great writers on the same dreadful typewriter'. The bus arrived just then at Palm Beach where I would swim for hours in its warm waters of escapism. - 15 February,2019.