Subject: Lyr Add: KAIKOURA RAILWAY MEMORIAL (John Warner)
From:
Little Robyn
Date: 08 Jan 04 - 09:00 PM
Yes, the words are in a booklet with the CD.
We don't recognize the tune - it sounds more Aussie contemporary rather than NZ but it is very pleasant. The men killed missed out on the great OE experience that many New Zealanders and Australians had during WWII! Hence the reference to El Alamein.
KAIKOURA RAILWAY MEMORIAL
John Warner (1987)
On a cold Kaikoura (Ky koora) morning
When drizzle draped the land in grey,
And darker grey the headland loomed
Where surf thumped, snarling up the bay,
A gull flashed silver over rocks
Fringed with white lace
Where the kelp beds heaved,
And beauty lived in the drab and dark
Without a flash of colour relieved.
The station faced a shingle beach
And hung and dripped with gentle rain.
I heard the pulsing diesel song
That spoke the coming of the train.
The screaming of a single gull
Drifted across where the breakers roll,
The loco hooter's soft reply,
The echo of a common soul.
And who was Charlie Johnston then?
Did Vernon Willis leave a wife?
How did Robert Kitto die,
And Roy Frank Chapman yield his life?
They were not seen at Alamein,
Bill O'Connell faced no gun,
John Turich's hands worked iron and rock,
Alongside Oscar Cottington.
With pick and crowbar, maul and axe,
Through beetling crags swept by the tide,
They drove the railway down the coast,
As working men they lived and died.
The Wharanui (Far a noo ee) track runs through
Great tunnels within the ocean's sound,
Hewn through the cliffs in nature's spite,
For their memorial, look around.
And I look upon my people's work
And wonder at my pride and pain,
The thump of seas a counterpoint,
Beside the rumbling of the train.
The majesty of stone and rain,
The whisper of the ocean's breath,
All say more than the mind can hold,
This balancing of life and death.
Robyn
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sj
