The Return of the Wanderer 3: Wellington Words

As a writer I am drawn to words and what they express. I see hidden stories in a vague line of words and imagine characters and their lives from a simple quote. While I was in Wellington I discovered many words… from a memorial to someone’s life on a bench, from some emotional ‘graffiti’ that some one possibly hoped their lost loved one might find some day, to beautiful quotes purposely put there about the city of Wellington.

Memorial Plaques

Memoral plaques on benches and other places are very personal to the people that put them there, but by putting them in public places they are letting others now about that person’s life and sometimes give us an insight into that person’s life or personality, so their memory lives on. Here are just some that spoke to me while I was in Wellington. Please think and offer up a prayer or thought for that person and their loved ones too.

Creative ‘Graffiti’

To many, including myself, graffiti is often ugly, often rude and it is vandalism; but I do acknowledge along with others that some graffiti is creative, artistic and thought-provoking. I found some very poignant, romantic, truthful words that expressed deep pain, loss and self-examination. It is so personal but also universal. Here is what I found.

I hate myself for missing you

You was the reason of my smile and now you left so how am I suppost to write again

Sometime you miss the memories not the person

Beautiful Quotes

There are some really beautiful quotes of poetry and prose around Wellington, especially along the waterfront. Many of these are about the city or have some connection to the city.

‘The Wellington Writers Walk is made up of a series of 23 quotations from New Zealand writers, including poets, novelists, and playwrights. The quotations are placed along the Wellington waterfront, from Kumutoto stream to Oriental Bay, in the form of contemporary concrete plaques or inlaid metal text on wooden ‘benchmarks’. They were designed by Catherine Griffiths and Fiona Christeller and installed to honour and celebrate the lives and works of these well-known writers, all of whom had (or have) some connection to Wellington.’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington_Writers_Walk

These are just a few of them. Read them and enjoy them like I did.

From The Crime of Huey Dunstan(Random House, 2010) James McNeish

From Old Wellington Days(Whitcombe & Tombs, 1959) Pat Lawlor

‘The Acolyte’in Selected Poems: Eileen Duggan,
ed. Peter Whiteford
(Victoria University Press, 1994) Eileen Duggan

From ‘The Active Voice’in Scenes from a Small City
(Daphne Brasell Associates Press, 1994) Lauris Edmond

From Cousins(Penguin Books, 1992) Patricia Grace