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Dunedin Public Libraries and the Dunedin Lebanese Community Present:
HE PURAPURA MARARA SCATTERED SEEDS
HE PURAPURA MARARA SCATTERED SEEDS
'Immigrant' by Richard Langston
Main details
Immigrant by Richard Langston
Home was far off
In the moment of arrival
In that cool wooded harbour.
He tried to put the name to this place
-Port Chalmers –
his tongue failed him.
He stepped onto the wharf
& his language began to die-
the sound of his homeland & heart;
all he had was his strength.
He’d lost the scent of Cedars –
This new dark bush weighed
On his shoulders –
The stars wrongly arrayed.
The village man who sailed down the globe to escape
Ancient trials – poverty, prejudice, bloodiness.
To travel to Lebanon’s coast, to see for the first time
The waters of the never-ending sea.
The deck shifted under him –
The engine clanked in his head,
A black man revived him with grapes.
His wife nearly lost their baby overboard –
The infant girl survived to see the children
Of her children’s children.
To cross the world & enter the hope of a new century.
To break new ground in ancient shoes.
This Arab man who changed costumes to fit in:
He faced the camera in a farmer’s jacket & hat.
The land’s emptiness echoed, rough roads & bush.
There was only work. He signed for farmland, an ‘x’
For his name was good enough.
He stood at the bottom of the island
In a bay with the wind studded with ice
Coming off the South Pole.
No olives would see the sun here.
The bush, wet & heavy, as it fell.
Cattle hooves sucked in the mud.
He late proved himself to the district –
A measured stance & swift downward stroke,
Of his axe finished a wild bull.
The darkness of the soil hearted him:
Fertility clung to his hands.
Family multiplied in a two-room farmhouse.
He learned to walk in a new land
& dreamed in Arabic of home.
No letters came or went.
We set the table for him – olives, tomatoes, goat’s cheese.
He eats with us.
Home was far off
In the moment of arrival
In that cool wooded harbour.
He tried to put the name to this place
-Port Chalmers –
his tongue failed him.
He stepped onto the wharf
& his language began to die-
the sound of his homeland & heart;
all he had was his strength.
He’d lost the scent of Cedars –
This new dark bush weighed
On his shoulders –
The stars wrongly arrayed.
The village man who sailed down the globe to escape
Ancient trials – poverty, prejudice, bloodiness.
To travel to Lebanon’s coast, to see for the first time
The waters of the never-ending sea.
The deck shifted under him –
The engine clanked in his head,
A black man revived him with grapes.
His wife nearly lost their baby overboard –
The infant girl survived to see the children
Of her children’s children.
To cross the world & enter the hope of a new century.
To break new ground in ancient shoes.
This Arab man who changed costumes to fit in:
He faced the camera in a farmer’s jacket & hat.
The land’s emptiness echoed, rough roads & bush.
There was only work. He signed for farmland, an ‘x’
For his name was good enough.
He stood at the bottom of the island
In a bay with the wind studded with ice
Coming off the South Pole.
No olives would see the sun here.
The bush, wet & heavy, as it fell.
Cattle hooves sucked in the mud.
He late proved himself to the district –
A measured stance & swift downward stroke,
Of his axe finished a wild bull.
The darkness of the soil hearted him:
Fertility clung to his hands.
Family multiplied in a two-room farmhouse.
He learned to walk in a new land
& dreamed in Arabic of home.
No letters came or went.
We set the table for him – olives, tomatoes, goat’s cheese.
He eats with us.
Photo
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Dunedin Public Libraries (19th Apr 2016). 'Immigrant' by Richard Langston. In Website Dunedin Public Libraries. Retrieved 12th Apr 2026 03:30, from https://dunedin.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/200008