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Lahaina

I’ve felt your restless tides and watched your palms
Sway in the breeze that sweeps in from Lanai;
I’ve joined your mission church in singing psalms,
And gazed across the strait at Molokai.

Hawaiian royals occupied this place;
Explorers came, and whalers from Cape Cod;
And missionaries; men of diverse race
Who found a Paradise handmade by God.

Green hills, plumeria and sandalwood;
Majestic waterfalls and unique birds…
It’s thirty years since I last stood
Beneath your banyan tree. I have no words

Of comfort I can give, just somber flashes:
The shops on Front Street are no longer there;
Museum treasures—all reduced to ashes.
Auwe! That’s Hawaiian for “despair.”

Lahaina: heart of Maui—lost to flame.
Know in my heart you’ll always be the same.

.

.

Brian Yapko is a lawyer who also writes poetry. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

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27 Responses

  1. Paul A. Freeman

    A heartfelt and well-written tribute in response to a shocking event that’s still unfortunately unravelling on the news.

    Reply
    • Brian A. Yapko

      Thank you, Paul. It’s hard to imagine but this has turned into the deadliest wildfire in U.S. history.

      Reply
    • Brian A. Yapko

      Thank you, Rohini. A loss indeed, but little compared to the poor people of Maui. We have so much to be grateful for.

      Reply
  3. Margaret Coats

    “Museum treasures–all reduced to ashes.” News of the fires must make this poet feel that part of his young adulthood is consumed by flame. Stand chill in those restless tides, Brian.

    Reply
    • Brian A. Yapko

      Very astute, Margaret. This is where I honeymooned upon my first marriage in 1987. We loved it so much, we later returned. I loved Lahaina before I ever saw it because it was the central setting in James Michener’s novel “Hawaii” and the subject of a charming song by Loggins & Messina. I’ve kept two wood carvings from antique stores on Front Street on my piano for the last 30 years. It is a place that has loomed large in my imagination. That it is so utterly annihilated is a terrible tragedy. And, yes, I do feel my young adulthood marred if not consumed.

      Reply
  4. James A Tweedie

    Seventeen years in Hawaii. Numerous visits to Maui and Lahaina. Some years ago, I posted a memory related to the Lahaina banyan: https://classicalpoets.org/2021/02/02/lahaina-mynahs-and-other-light-hearted-poetry-by-james-a-tweedie/

    I have felt such a deep sadness over the disaster that I have not known where to begin in trying to put any of it into verse.

    But Brian, you have captured my own thoughts, memories and feelings so well that I think I will let your poem stand in for one of my own.

    Thank you for doing it so well.

    Reply
    • Brian A. Yapko

      James, I am very grateful for this generous comment. I loved Lahaina and did not have anywhere near as much of a connection to this charming town as you. You have my condolences for what I know to be a very real and personal grief. And I’m deeply pleased that you feel my poem spoke for you. I could not ask for more.

      Reply
  6. Carey Jobe

    Brian, your eulogy is wonderful and gives shape and grace to what each of us is feeling at this loss. Another poet might have stopped at a sonnet, but the strength of the poetry pushed further and gave us even more. And so soon after the event–one gets the impression the words poured out. Poetry really is the best consolation. Thanks for helping us see some beauty in the face of the incomprehensible.

    Reply
    • Brian A. Yapko

      Thank you so much, Carey. You are very insightful. I intended this poem to be a traditional 14-line sonnet and just couldn’t stop. I think I could have kept going with even more quatrains but sometimes less is more. The words did indeed pour out but I had to stop — I wanted this poem to be submitted while it was still weighing on my mind and heart. I’m grateful to Evan for publishing it so quickly. And, Carey, you are so right — poetry can be a great consolation.

      Reply
  7. Roy Eugene Peterson

    That is a beautiful poem for a place that has been ravaged by fire. The memories are precious of having been there and I can hear it in your despair. I have been there, as well, but you brought it back alive wonderfully.

    Reply
    • Brian A. Yapko

      Thank you very much indeed, Roy. My memories of Lahaina are indeed precious and I’m particularly pleased that you felt I brought back the feel of the location. I wanted the life of Lahaina to be remembered. If I had any model for this approach it was the song “The Last Time I Saw Paris” which Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern wrote upon learning the news that the Nazis had occupied Paris.

      Reply
  8. Yael

    That’s a very beautiful and fitting poem, thank you. I have elderly family on Maui, in one of the areas that didn’t burn, and they are dealing with the displaced and homeless refugees and the enormous stress and tension of the situation there. All we can do is pray for them.

    Reply
  9. Mike Bryant

    Brian, your poem is beautiful and sad, much like the goings on in Hawaii. Hawaii has been historically plagued by wildfires. I will let a native Hawaiian speak:

    Puhiawa
    I know the area pretty well. I was born on Maui. My wife lived on Front Street above Moki’s Inn, a long gone bar that served exclusively Hawaiian food, and later bought a home behind it. Both gone.
    The extent of the fire was caused by governmental negligence. For more than 1,200 years Lahaina was encircled by agriculture fields. Early illustrations show taro fields and orchards, coconut, kukui nut and breadfruit. All irrigated and well tended. After contact, Lahaina was backed by pineapple and sugar cane. As the latter was periodically burned, fire breaks surrounded each field.
    When farming stopped, about 30 years ago for sugar, more recently for pineapple, All this land was taken over by the invasive guinea grass, haole koa and a variety of mesquite we call kiawe..
    Lahaina is always dry and hot. Always. It is in the lee of the West Maui mountains and gets little rain. Droughts are common on parts of Maui and always have been. Irrigation was sourced from large streams.
    While I suspect this fire was arson, like the 2019 fire, the foliage and wind created the perfect fire storm.
    The lack of wide fire breaks doomed the oldest town in Hawaii.
    And this exact scenario exists in Kihei through Lapurose Maui, Kekaha Kauai, Kohala Hawaii and Waianae Oahu.
    Global Warming is the political way to avoid doing one’s job and responsibility.

    From the comments section of Power Line article, Whither the Weather

    Reply
    • Brian A. Yapko

      Thank you very much for this additional insight, Mike. I never frankly considered climate change is a reason for this tragedy because, having been to Lahaina, I know how dry it is. I recall many parts of Maui that are like this. The level of governmental negligence in not planning for a potential fire of this sort is breathtaking.

      As for arson… there are some really sick people out there. I hope whoever caused this is caught and tried for multiple counts of murder. But unthinking idiots cause fires too. A few years back the forest lining the Columbia Gorge in Oregon burned out of control because some 15 year-old teenage dummy ignored drought fire-danger warnings and decided to set off fireworks. No one was killed but 47,000 acres were burned, including many homes. The kid was ordered to pay $36,000,000 in restitution and something like 1900 hours of community service. Of course, what he caused was trivial compared to what has happened in Maui.

      Reply
    • Brian A. Yapko

      You’re right, Cheryl. He’s a horrible person with the empathy of a flea.

      Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      Hawaii is safely in the Democratic column for presidential elections, so why should Biden bother to show sympathy? The Biden crime family is only concerned with what is available to grab — not what they already securely possess.

      Reply
      • Brian A. Yapko

        A terrible shame for Hawaii. I don’t believe this would have happened with a grown-up Republican governor capable of rational, non-ideologically-driven risk-assessment. As for Biden, he has sold his soul for political gain.

  11. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Brian, you have captured (as only you can) in beautiful and heartfelt words what many are feeling… and I thank you for it. Sometimes a poem says more than any newspaper article can capture… and your poem says it all.

    Reply
    • Brian A. Yapko

      Thank you so much, Susan. I don’t trust my spur-of-the-moment writing very much so I’m pleased that this spontaneous elegiac poem moved you.

      Reply
      • Susan Jarvis Bryant

        Spontaneous creativity often brings with it a tangible reality steeped in the mood of the moment… and your poem echoes the thoughts of many I am certain. Never doubt the inner voice that spurs you on to write… right now! To ignore it is a big mistake… just my selfish opinion

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