Arwen Flowers | Artist
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Picture
SAILING THE 'MATOAKA'
In the leap year of 1868
Transit begins, dividing
Ireland to Island and so
Beginning with no end in sight
A year of the shortest day and
This longest night—a listless night
Chill, when the sand from home
Shores have blown clean away
I look overboard and wish I was
No piece of lagan trailing
One globe-side to the other
Borne along by a buoyant bridge
The line of my heart taught
The line of my mind tracing
Paths of leaving, ending
With one last jump
To shore and who knows
Will this become another
​Home, to serve as home?

​
​— A. Flowers
Sailing the Matoaka in 1868
610 x 610
Mixed Media - Paint, dress patterns, graphite, charcoal, metallic foil

​The Matoaka (also known as Mataoka) was a 1092-ton wooden New Brunswick full-rigged ship built in 1853 for Willis, Gunn, & Co. Between 1859 and 1869 she made eight voyages to New Zealand. Her fastest run from Bristol to Lyttelton, New Zealand was 82 days in 1862. On 13 May 1869 she left Lyttelton for London under Captain Alfred Stevens with 45 passengers and 32 crew but was never seen again.

ARWEN FLOWERS – KIWIARTIST