{"id":295162,"date":"2025-05-12T12:00:54","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T11:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=295162"},"modified":"2025-05-12T11:12:58","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T10:12:58","slug":"awapuhi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/05\/awapuhi\/","title":{"rendered":"`Awapuhi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mama loved the scent
\nof the wild yellow ginger,
\ngrowing thick on the slopes of Tantalus.<\/p>\n

In its blooming season,
\nshe would walk up that
\nsteep, curvy road to pick
\ntwo or three.<\/p>\n

These she would weave
\ninto a brooch, to be
\npinned to the inside
\nof her blouse–hidden,
\nbut for that warm perfume.<\/p>\n

On the day she was buried
\nshe wore a lei of wild
\nyellow ginger, freshly
\npicked from the slopes of
\nTantalus,<\/p>\n

And left for me,
\nin a blue shoe box,
\na thousand, neatly-
\nwoven, dry, fragrant
\nbrooches.<\/p>\n

I always begin with this poem. It has done the most to teach me the difference between truth and meaning. It\u2019s funny how poets can say their own poems teach them something, but it’s true.<\/em><\/p>\n

__________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Puanani Burgess (1947 -2024) was a poet, priest, aunty, and friend to many. She was a community activist in the Native Hawaiian sovereignty movement for over fifty years. As the designer and facilitator for Building the Beloved Community \u2013 a process that brings ceremony, storytelling, and circles of trust and respect \u2013 Aunty Pua shared Native Hawaiian practices throughout the world to bring healing and reconciliation. She served as the Myles and Zilphia Horton Chair for the Highlander Research and Education Center in Tennessee and as a community scholar in residence at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Hawai\u2019i. Aunty Pua was an ordained Zen Buddhist priest in the International Daihonzan Chozen-ji.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to make a difference? Then start by looking within.\u201d \u2013 Aunty Puanani Burgess<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mama loved the scent
\nof the wild yellow ginger,
\ngrowing thick on the slopes of Tantalus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":293610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[868,3463],"class_list":["post-295162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-format","tag-poetry","tag-puanani-burgess"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295162"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":295164,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295162\/revisions\/295164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}