Be CIND
As Summer waned and Autumn loos'd,
lightly tethered leaves,
A hemis-fear away families blanched,
and all-together grieved.
Bands of whistling, darkening clouds,
chimed in with bell-vire' towers,
And squalled upon our sacred shores,
their deadly Covid showers.
Harken! Forced to act and act with force,
stepped-up our stately queen,
Her A-team laboured as surgeons might,
in a patient's dream.
Locked-down, not out, our nation true arose,
to smote the viral foe,
E-sent workers, checkpoint heroes, all of us,
battled toe-to-toe.
'Tihei mauri ora!' encored high-up ancient folk,
a'bow in Matariki,
'Toia mai! Toia mai!' rejoined our captain queen,
with wiri feathered tiki.
O! As Maui had once pulled and fought,
to bare for us our lands,
So a'same our nation pulling taut was hauled,
by Jacinda Ardern's calloused hands.
Many lives were saved and others cared a'not,
as our strategy evolved,
Vigilance with contact tracing, upped in rank,
For those in health were gold.
As wild winds calmed, light flittered, coloured,
with pi-waka amongst our forest trees,
Thoughts turned to thank our selfless leader,
who'd brought us off our knees.
NZ paused a'mome' upon creative gesture,
of pure variant-word idea,
To capture 'cind' [kind] as in her name we see,
O! Our gift to her was clear.
'Be kind', her call, as 'cind' we immortalise it,
by quill and worded power,
As 'cind', our hearts rejoice, her legacy to us,
in our nations darkest hour.
#cindappreciationPM
Artwork: Samantha Knightbridge
www.misshauora.wordpress.com......
Poem: Harko Brown
chng.it...
It’s Riddle Time – You Might Need an Extra Cup of Coffee!
Nobody has ever walked this way. Which way is it?
Do you think you know the answer to our daily riddle? Don't spoil it for your neighbours! Simply 'Like' this post and we'll post the answer in the comments below at 2pm.
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Head here and hover on the Following button on the top right of the page (and it will show Unfollow) and then click it. If it is giving you the option to Follow, then you've successfully unfollowed the Riddles page.
Poll: Do you think NZ should ban social media for youth?
The Australian Prime Minister has expressed plans to ban social media use for children.
This would make it illegal for under 16-year-olds to have accounts on platforms including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X.
Social media platforms would be tasked with ensuring children have no access (under-age children and their parents wouldn’t be penalised for breaching the age limit)
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Do you think NZ should follow suit? Vote in our poll and share your thoughts below.
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84.7% Yes
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13.9% No
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1.4% Other - I'll share below
What's your favourite recipe for courgettes?
Kia ora neighbours. If you've got a family recipe for courgettes, we'd love to see it and maybe publish it in our magazine. Send your recipe to mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz, and if we use it in the mag, you will receive a free copy of our January 2025 issue.