Mana

when you flow through my body

I know
I am caught in the current of a river
larger than the length of my own lifetime
it bends where we have all been before
same rapids
other waters
our veins
my blood
I know
I am in the flow
of something greater than my own self

--Karlo Mila (1974- ), New Zealand poet, of Tongan, Pālagi and Samoan ancestry. Mana is an untranslatable Mari word (actually in 29 languages in the Pacific) that means honor, a supernatural life force, prestige, charisma, which can be inherited but also can grow or decrease according to one's actions (like karma).