ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hinemoana Baker (www.hinemoana.co.nz) is a writer, producer and musician living on Wellington’s Kapiti Coast. Her work’s been published in literary journals at home and abroad, the most recent being the Southwest Minnesota State University’s Yellow Medicine Review. Her first collection of poetry, mātuhi | needle, (Victoria University Press/Perceval Press) was published in 2004 and launched alongside her first full-length album, puāwai.
This poem was inspired by being ‘one of the Blessed Handmaidens’ at her close friend’s homebirth. Hinemoana was deeply affected by the sounds her friend made during the birth, but was quite certain she could never adequately describe them in words — at least not with her usual poem-writing methods. Fortunately, her partner Christine White did it for her. Christine is studying at the New Zealand School of Music. Hinemoana has lifted the text for this found poem directly from Christine’s answers to an Electronic Music Theory and Analysis Exam. Strange but true.