A Hundred Years of Love

In the morning of the 3rd of April, I along with many others have been lucky and gracious enough to have been able to listen and work with  Apirana Taylor. A famous novelist, performer, story-teller, musician, painter and no doubt one of the best poet in New Zealand. 
In the first half, Apirana Taylor performed for us a few of his phenomenal poetry and the melodies that he has created in his life long work. Not only that but he has shared many of the life experiences that gave him the inspiration to write some of his poems. He has also shared with us the process of how he works, what and how he thinks; as well as insights of the Maori culture.  

At the moment that he has been exhibiting his poetry and performance; he has uncovered many philosophical thoughts, that got me reasoning on the meanings behind his words. One of the many moments that I've enjoyed was how he executed his poetry and music; the emotions that surrounded the words that he has put out.  Furthermore, being that this is the first that I've witness Apirana Taylor perform I was surprised by the humour that he incorporates with his performance, which I, of course, enjoyed, very much so.  With that said, I conclude that in by incorporating humour in his work, it makes it all the more special. 

After his performance, the "Scholarship English Students" which I have been informed that a couple of people and I are part of. We were invited to be able to grow our writing skills by working with him and teaching us more about writing.
We started off with brainstorming some ideas about a phrase he wrote,  "Writing Makes You Strong" and drawing what we thought of. Following on, he then started to educate us about communication, how our senses help with understanding each other. Subsequently, we then started working on the process of making a poem, one of the ways that we did that first of all, trying to find words that connect with the sea; which we also did later on but in a different way with a few more varieties of words and making a poem including all of it.

Then he took us to the process of eliminating words, words that do not "pack a punch" as he calls it, we needed to take off.

"LOVE"
As High up in the sky,
Wide as the water in the ocean, 
Love is there.
Across the desert horizon,
As far as the  twinkling stars,
Death of a loved one,
Raging emotions, Melody of wind
The shock from lightning,
The toughest of men,
Deep inside... Love...it's always present.