Just a Summer's Day

Aloha!

Welcome to Waikiki So glad you stopped by today!

Palolo Valley

Just musing on the summer beauty. . .

Today I brought a poem to share

with you

as I wander in a realm of sensation.

My brain works - not - right,

let's call it grief.

Flooded by memories

and the present seems like a dream. . .

Wisteria Woman
by Lisa Shields

Violet lavender drug

slipping beneath my skin,

shucking off the stale air

of too long shut in,

too long shut away

whispering to me

to breathe deep and be.

The clothes fall away

till I stand like mother Eve

two bites before the apple.

Lips blush to rose,

and the tongue tastes

of sweet tart pomegranate,

while a wisp of wind

carries hair to frame my face.

All I have been is pollen dusted,

oh the wisteria sweet

kissing deep,

till I feel the promise of fertile,

drooping fat on a vine

petals that promise nothing,

but hint at all.

A month from honeysuckle still to come,

but I can taste the nights,

raise my eyes to the mantle of sky,

suddenly clad in the skin

of every moonlit woman,

and beckoning with my being

for you to dance beneath

the far flung sky

in the arms of a Wisteria Woman

©2007, Lisa Shields

Lisa Shields resides in New Jersey.

Pidgin Be Flying

Aloha,

Greetings, Hello, Anaseo, Shalom, Howdy, Konichiwa, Ciao, Ni Hau !Click on photos to enlarge

"Writing cannot express all words, words cannot encompass all ideas."

Confucius

"By words the mind is winged."

Aristophanes

Young breadfruit, or Ulu in Hawaiian

"He that travelleth into a country before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school, and not to travel."

Francis Bacon

"Belladonna, n.: In Italian a beautiful lady; in English a deadly poison. A striking example of the essential identity of the two tongues."

Ambrose Bierce

"There is no such thing as an ugly language. Today I hear every language as if it were the only one, and when I hear of one that is dying, it overwhelms me as though it were the death of the Earth."

Elias Canetti

"When I use a word [...] it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less."

Humpty Dumpty, in Through The Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll

"I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my dog."

Emperor Charles V

"England and America are two countries divided by a common language."

George Bernard Shaw

Every area has it's own unique "tongue."

We can tell a lot about people by the way they speak,

or the way they "tawk."

When I was in Jamaica the patois was impenetrable, though based on the Queen's English.

Ebonics, the English spoken by some black Americans, refreshes and enlivens our language and our culture.

Cockneys, Brooklynites, Southern Belles, and Oxford dons may be distinguished by their modes of verbal communication, as may Pakistanis, and New England Yankees.

Well Hawaii is no different. We have our own indigenous way of "talking story" through the use of Pidgin, or "Hawaiian Creole English."

The other day I was in a Waikiki store behind a lady from the continental USA.

She asked the shop girl for a certain thing.

"No mo," replied the girl.

"No mo?" asked the puzzled woman.

"No," answered the local girl.

I could have told the woman that the girl was telling her there was "No more."

This is standard pidgin that we use because it is our primary tongue (and yes it is a problem in school and employment) or because it is the linguistic equivalent of comfortable slippers, or as a mark of belonging to this special community.

I look like a tourist to many local folks, even if they are fresh off the jet from Pago Pago, the Philipines, or Micronesia themselves. They way I speak, the words and the rhythm of it say: "Easy, Brah (Bruddah) or Sistah, I stay local too, eh?" When we can't think of the word for what we need we use: "Da Kine" (the kind) "Hand me da kine." And they hand it to you. You go to the neighbor to borrow a tool: "You get da kine hammer?"

We say stuffs like: "You like come?" "Can or no can?" "Stay COME Den!" (then).

In my autobiographical novel "Aloha Where You Like Go?" Pidgin is practically a character. The book's glossary contains Pidgin, Hawaiian, & Japanese words because that's the reality here. We don't have ghost stories, we have Obake (Japanese ghost) stories. If you enjoy that sort of literature, you should go to Amazon and check out books by Glenn Grant who collected TONS of this material and presented it very compellingly. You might want to buy one of his books AND mine for the complete Hawaiian STAY-cation; you can read us by the pool this Summer ;-)

Hawaii people are justifiably proud of this brilliant cultural adaptation through which those of many cultures and languages were able to communicate, and to make their contributions to the language and life of these islands.

It is important to remember that Pidgin is not Ka Olelo Hawaii, the Hawaiian language of the indigenous people, though Pidgin does seem to be based somewhat on Hawaiian grammar. A song lyric: "Nui ke aloha," literally means: "Big, the love." Contemporary Pidgin speakers will say things like: "Beeg (big) da dog!" Phrases like "Where you stay?" or "Stay come!" likely have something to do with the Hawaiian word/concept "Noho" meaning: seat, sit, reside, stay.

Through speaking Pidgin we linguistically honor our Kupuna (Hawaiian word meaning grandparents or ancestors) and their ethnicity's using borrowed Chinese, Japanese, Hawaiian and English words (among others) in this daily celebration of our unique, plantation-born, "Local" culture.

"Cool head main thing." "Stay pau" (I'm finished") "Ono for some grinds?" (You hungry?) "I like go beach!" (self explanatory ;-) "Meet me pau hana." (after work) "Beeg da keiki!)" (Those/that kid/kids are getting HUGE!).

Just da way we roll here in the 808 (telephone area code for Hawaii)

Stay Come! No Worries, you going like 'um!

Laters, Cuz! Cloudia

Jack Bauer's Law

Aloha!

Click on photos to enlarge

"Not to know is bad. Not to want to know is worse.

Not to hope is unthinkable.

Not to care is unforgivable."

Nigerian Saying

Tuning up

It's right THERE!

Jack Bauer Law of Character Writing

"Good guys" in popular fiction (including TV & movies) break the rules to help others in peril, for the right reasons, but then they face the music and even take responsibility when wrongly accused.

"Bad Guys" break rules for their own convenience (or for the pure fun of it) and ALWAYS avoid responsibility. They lack any self awareness and always blame others.

What do YOU think?

ALOHA! Cloudia

Fireworks

Aloha!

Welcome to Tranquil Waikiki

Click on photos to enlargeNormally, Hawaii Skies are Gentle and Pretty

In November 1962

a nuclear test on Johnston Island, 717 miles away,

lit up the skies over Honolulu.

This is the SBX / Sea Band Radar.

A few days ago it was seen leaving Pearl Harbor.

We call it "The Golf Ball."

(Can't really see the dimples in this shot from the Honolulu Star Bulletin)

It can reportedly track a golf ball-sized object several hundreds of miles away; It is used in missile defense.

Around July fourth our neighbors in North Korea will be sending one of their Taepodong Missiles over Japan and the Pacific towards

Hawaii.

Hello!

Sec Def (Secretary of Defense) Gates has ordered the positioning of the SBX and other assets to protect our islands which are reportedly within range.

No one thinks the missile is aimed at us

or will make it anywhere close.

My hubby, a former military intelligence officer,

points out that a hit on US soil

would provoke a hellacious response.

Say what you will about Obama,

War Hawks,

But he grew up here

and might resent having his

childhood home

toasted.

So, all in all I'm not too worried.

As you can see above, Honolulu has had

her baptism of fire

into the ballistic age.

Taepodong?

Sounds like some

Type - O - Dong to me!

Nevertheless,

as a child of the "Duck and Cover" generation,

I shall be prepared with all that the Cold War taught me.

In the event of attack

I shall crouch under my desk. . .

And kiss my ass goodbye.

Now it's time to watch Howdy Doody. . . .

ALOHA! Cloudia

Escape to Paradise

Aloha

& Welcome to. . .

Machu Picchu? Nat'l Geographic (c)

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”
Henry David Thoreau

“How far away the stars seem, and how far is our first kiss, and ah, how old my heart.”
William Butler Yeats

The Playground of Waikiki

“Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war and until there are no longer first-class and second-class citizens of any nation, until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes. And until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race, there is war. And until that day, the dream of lasting peace, world citizenship, rule of international morality, will remain but a fleeting illusion to be pursued, but never attained... now everywhere is war.”

Popularized by Bob Marley in the song War

Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia

Imagine that you are a black man born into slavery in Albany New York in the Year of Our Lord 1774.

That you somehow make your way to Boston as the modern 19th Century dawns, find a job in the galley of a whaling ship, but are discovered by your "owner" while still at anchor in the harbor.

Freedom denied at the last possible moment!

Then imagine your Yankee captain, bristling at such interference in HIS affairs, brusquely paying Massa off, and allowing you to work off your debt, thus EARNING your FREEDOM as you see the world from the deck of a sailing vessel.

After 1802 you are a free man.

In 1812 you settle in the Hawaiian Kingdom of Kamehameha the Great.

Imagine!

Such was the early story of Anthony Allen.

But the most interesting parts of this story were yet to come.

Thanks to a historic letter, auctioned last week by Bonhams, we can thrill to his amazing tale, from a unique historic moment,

and in the words of the man himself.

Missionary Hiram Bingham wrote the letter by hand to Allen's dictation on October 11th, 1822.

Allen would live until 1835.

(Incidentally, Bingham's name-sake grandson would later discover Machu Picchu! Hence the top picture ;-)

The so called "lost letter of Anthony Allen" describes his rise from slavery in New York to freedom and land-ownership in Hawaii.

From the Bonham's catalogue:

"In 1822, Allen received a letter from a Dr. Dougal of Schenectady, New York. Dougal was the son of the family that owned Allen as a slave, and had read an article about him in the Missionary Herald. He wrote to Allen, asking him to reply describing his life during the past two decades. Touched by the letter, Allen asked the American Protestant missionaries whether one of them would be willing to act as his scribe in writing a response.

The willingness of Bingham to help Allen write was testimony to the former slave's generosity and kindness towards the missionaries. Elisha Loomis remarked of Allen that he "lives the most comfortably of any on the island - has a wife and two pretty children," and that he frequently sent gifts of potatoes, squashes, goats, and milk.

The letter reads, in part:

'Mr Dear Master, I rejoice that you have found out my residence after supposing I had been dead ... As you have written me a long and very kind letter and requested me very particularly to write to you an account of myself since I left your city, I have come to the house of the Missionaries, to get one of them to write what I wish to say to you respecting myself ... Came to the Sandwich Islands in 1811 & here came ashore with permission and lived four months with Hevaheva the high Priest of the Islands ... Capt. Davis employed me as a steward in passage from one island to another particularly to wait on the King Tamehameha & his five Queens, as I was a taboo'd man, and they would like my services the better ... The High Priest gave me a piece of land at Waititi (Waikiki!) containing about six acres, having on it a few cocoanut trees & three small houses or native huts ... Came back to these Islands in the Isabella Capt. Davis in 1812 & celebrated the 4th of July at Karakekuah (Kealakekua) a great day. - Returned from Hawaii to this Island (Oahu) & after about a fortnight I came ashore with my wages which amounted to about 150 doll., and came to live on my place with two families the people of the High Priest, belonging to the land. And here I must tell you that according to the custom of the country & the practice of some of my white neighbors who settle in these Islands I took me two wives ... Isaac David had six, and one American gentleman I could name, kept ten, for two or three years ... In 1813 I began to build me small thatched houses, I built one for a sleeping house, one for an eating house for myself and one for an eating house for my wives, for we might not eat in a sleeping house without breaking taboo. I could not eat in my women's eating house nor they in mine. I could not go into theirs nor they in mine, we could not drink ...'"The text breaks off here-

It sold for $9,150 USD inclusive of Buyer's Premium.

The document is a private treasure, but the words are free to thrill us. . .

A L O H A! Cloudia

Hank Heron

Aloha &

Welcome Back to Waikiki!

Click on Photos to Enlarge Hank the Celebrity Heron

"Let everything do

what it likes to do

and so

Satisfy it's

Soul."

Chung Tzu

Innocent Looking Morning Glory Plans Neighborhood Domination!

“It is not enough to conquer; one must also know how to seduce.”
Voltaire

Banana and papaya trees in da yard.

Welcome home.

"A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it."
George Moore

"The most important work you and I will ever do will be within the walls of our own homes."
Harold B. Lee

"Life's a voyage that's homeward bound."
Herman Melville

"Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home."
John Howard Payne

Ti Lei & Shinto Amulet

hanging from my rear-view mirror for safety.

"The heart of the person before you is a mirror.

See there your own form."

Shinto Saying

I love the giant blue heron who glide above my harbor home. They are so big (for birds) that they almost seem like small people.

Serious, feathered, small people.

Have your seen their powerful claws? The amber glint in their serious eyes? We're talking one tough bird!

Intelligent and wonderful fishers, they grudgingly share their world with us. . .

Then there's Hank,

Hank the black crowned night heron (auku`u) of Ko`olina out on the Leeward Coast.

There he lives in a cushy water feature on the golf course,

just beside a charming restaurant.

No one's sure exactly when Hank, began to garner attention, but it seems that he is even better at fishing than your average heron.

You see, Hank has learned to use bait.

Instead of merely watching for fish, he carefully places discarded restaurant bread on the water before him, watches intently for a nibble,

then scoops up his distracted meal

complete with-bread-stuffing!

Carol Cox of Envirowatch (our local citizen advocate and all around good guy) says that Hank and the missus even taught a clutch of fledglings the same trick last year.

You like make friends in Hawaii?

Go fishing!

If that's not your style you're always welcome to join me. . . just walking in Waikiki. . .

Aloha! Cloudia

Arising

Aloha! Welcome!

Click on photos to enlarge ;-) Energy/Idea precipitates shapes,

Shapes give rise to forms. . .

Forms beget multiplicities & relations,

out of which

arise:

The world.


Try to spend some time absorbed in nature today!

Warmly, Cloudia