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Mythology of Place - James K Baxter - 1993 - 94 - Lloyd Godman - Lawrence Jones

Central Otago Hinterland World


The cross in the centre of the Lindas river was made from a steel cable left over from the gold mining days and a willow stick.

 

Resonance XVI

I searched around a wide area of Tarras to try and find an image that related to the project. This is in fact of the Lindis River which caught my eye late one evening and I walked down the right bank searching for an appropriate image that eluded me before the sun sank below the horizon and darkness set in. I returned the next afternoon and walked down the opposite bank until I came to this spot where a rusted cable from the gold-dredging days had caught in the rushing rapid while across it was snagged a thin branch of willow. With the few small willow trees on the horizon, it seemed to complete the image.

 

 Poem references

Night in Tarras  1947  CP 

By Tarras where a shadowless sun beats down
on range and river, scorching snowgrass brown
and dawarfish trees - we came where a small 
stream flowed
From the rocks, a fructifying angle, glowed


To My Father in Spring  1966  CP 365
That smile like a low sun on water
tells of a cross to come.


Brown Bone    1961   CP 229

All the way to Gabriel's Gully.

I stretched out like a log
Dreaming of girls and cider,
And death came like a riding man
With hooves of mountain water.