Meet the author: Keone Rivers

I am from

the mighty spear barer, the reader of the realm of dreams, the lei,

the exalted overseer of the curving slash of mighty lightning released into the heavens, demon of the earth

my unwilting lei of the fragrant wall of the forests of Puna

the sand, the shroud of the heavens, the vast heavens

the Lonely One, conqueror of the islands of Hawai’i

rivers running to the first son of the headwaters.

 

I am from

the lair of the long tailed scurriers and the six legged nibblers

the bladed war machines of old and the sweet voiced music makers

 

I am from

the stronghold of the white crowned monarch to the song-filled green mazes bellow

from the dry breathed outcast of the west to the roaring hammers that ceaselessly pound the corpses of the hidden cities and the bones of mighty fire

from the foam-headed leviathans of the ever moving plains.

 

I am from the dying remains of the once lovely maiden. Her skin lay scarred and plagued by festering sores. They spread mercilessly
across her still, pleading form. I come from her pain, her sorrow, her mustering rage.

 

I am from the vice handed warriors and the wise elders. From the playful young to the formless grand-kin past.

I am from olaikeanohawai’i, ho’olahouikeaupuni, and kaulananapua.

I am from the bounty of the moon hued bluffs and the green flecked oceans. From the body of our elder brother, and the hands of
our loved ones.

I am from the endless shapeless void, the impenetrable, the mysterious.

 

I am from

the great armies

the long lines of the predecessors

from the bodies of the fallen

from the mighty sphere of life and death, peace and strife, joy and sorrow, dark and light.

I am a child of Hawai’i, a child of this earth, a child.

Ke kumula’au lau ‘ole.

He kumula’au lau ‘ole ‘oe. Mae a lilo kau lau, a hiki ‘ole ‘oe ke moni i ka mana o ka la ‘alohi.