Christine Joy

“Did you reflect on Cook's arrival
and rue the day we were discovered
and curse the coming of foreign sailors
with bodies soaked in the blights
of London sewers?

Giving this cruel treasure to our unblemished women?
Did you think of this and rage and want to kill?
Did you remember all the insults down
the years from
French, British and American alike
Did you remember the threat of their guns?
I was not there during those dark
days of anguish and confusion

when the palace shook
with intrigue and rumor
that the greedy determined men
downtown were plotting your
ruin and demise of our nation.
--from "Manawaʻino”
― John Dominis Holt, Hanai: A Poem for Queen Liliuokalani

“Every day, we hope that we will see Patches.

Every day, we are disappointed.”
― Roxanne Beltran, Seal Named Patches

“We see hundreds and hundreds of Weddell seals.
There are so many seals!”
― Roxanne Beltran, Seal Named Patches

“Makaaina voices with fresh songs to sing
Speaking of new strengths
Mind and body strengths,
Strengthening the hope of change -- new joys
in this tiresome regimen of want and confusion.
Grand queen sleep the ageless
sleep in peace

Your people rise now,
and demand their share
of this sweet and wondrous place.
The populace from their sleep of compliance
Awake now to the beat of new
drums hewn from betrayal and delusion
urging the makaaina voice to
rise above the din of daily
trumpetings of man and machine
To be rid of confusion and fear
To stand equally with the new
rulers of this precious place
to be ruthless in demanding what is ours.

--from "Pono”
― John Dominis Holt, Hanai: A Poem for Queen Liliuokalani