#wailuku #poetryreading

This summer, Historic Hawai‘i Foundation launched a virtual art exhibit entitled Serendipity: Expressing the Connection of People, Place and the Past to showcase art inspired by historic places in Hawai‘i. Artists of all ages and experience were welcome to submit works of visual art, including collages, drawings, paintings, photography, printmaking, and poetry. Wailuku, a poem by Vanessa Lee-Miller is especially captivating, capturing the mysterious power of the Wailuku River and the mo‘ōlelo it is associated with. 28 miles long, the Wailuku River flows downward from the eastern slope of Mauna Kea to Hilo Bay, where it joins the Pacific Ocean. It is the longest river in the Islands and is known for the scenic points of Waiānuenue (Rainbow) Falls and Boiling Pots. Poet, playwright and freelance journalist Lee-Miller is a native of Hilo and grew up with the river in her backyard. Her poem exhibits an intimate awareness of its enchanting beauty. Please enjoy her reading of Wailuku and the insights she shared about it. Wailuku by Vanessa Lee-Miller Wailuku, the raging kahawai, the river. Her kāholo, Her long sinuous journey begins, as a watery, pencil-thin line, a mere trickle. Mauka, way up high, looking towards nā lani, on Mauna Kea. Her 'auana is a graceful journey iho, downslope, towards rainy Hilo. 'Ae, Hilo, i ka ua kanilehua. As she continues to iho, journey downslope, a magical transformation ensues from her embodiment of a graceful, delicate trickle. She widens, becoming voluptuous, she's now a raging beast, plunging turbulently downward, full of ʻenaʻena. Capable of arbitrarily grasping in her watery fist, a young, reckless life and smuggling it into one of her many deep, cavernous pockets, in her slimy "ana". She'll stash it [...]