I Pretend to Write a Letter from the Morning City
Meetup Friday in Welly! Sam Hunt is taking notes
Mōrena! Let’s have coffee with Sam Hunt. In spirit. In Wellington.
The first-ever american.nz meetup is tomorrow, Friday 15 August, at 10 a.m. at the Thunderbird Cafe, 154 Featherston Street in Wellington. All are welcome! Much NZ/US madness to talk about. I hope to do these elsewhere, too. Abrazos to all y’all farther afield!
I’ll be taking the train in myself, notebook in hand and cosplaying “Walking the Morning City, ” Sam Hunt’s loving ode to Wellington Station. He wrote the poem in the late ‘60s or early ‘70s, when he would’ve been riding the Kāpiti Line down from his famous party at Bottle Creek. Lordy, I’ve been that young man. Still am, really, every time I ride a train. I wrote my own letter to Wellington Station just last year, chasing a dad update of Sam’s dreamy quest.
Half a century on the world of his poem has faded. There’s no overnight from Auckland anymore, and no store in the station to buy a pen. When we need to seem unlonely, we pull out our phones. But we’ve still got coffee, unemployment, and hope. I pretend to write letters all the time. Tomorrow these winter streets might even see the morning sun.
Walking the Morning City
Walking the morning city
the opposite direction
workers walking toward me
walking from the sun:
I have no job to go to
so walk into the station
watch the all-night Limited
pull in at the platform
pretend I’m waiting for
a friend who never came:
pretend I’m disappointed
vamp my blues harmonica
buy a lightweight pad
& biro at the station store1
coffee at the cafeteria
pretend to write a letter:
have no one to write to
so drink a cup and leave
walk down morning streets
lightweight in the sun
no one to tell this to
’cause no one is my lover.
This morning more than ever
I’m set on finding you. //
Big Weather, an anthology of Wellington poems, starts this line with the ampersand, but this Sam Hunt collection has a plain ol’ and. I’m rolling with the squiggle. Feels brighter and looser that way, with more Frank O’Hara vibes. I think Sam would approve.
I saw Sam Hunt getting on a bus in Nelson once and I was star struck. He had long hair and one of those 1980s thread earrings- completely utterly uncool cool. I brought a book of his recently in paper plus for $2 - and it made me realize how much we absolutely undervalue our kiwi poets.
I do hope the Gods of Metlink and Kiwi Rail are in your favour. They've been having a terrible sulk lately, resulting in a godawful bus trip instead 😞