By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

Brudda Joe Hadley is a pure poet. Pure poets are rare these days. Most poets have part-time jobs, and Brudda Joe is seriously considering work as a security guard. Before that happens, let us examine this rare literary phenomenon.

One reason Brudda Joe doesn't eat regularly is that his poems are in pidgin. Even worse, he sets them down by hand with a felt pen. The result is a calligraphy that requires translation for most of us. But it's the truth inside that counts. Here's a sample:

"What ees dat miracle? Ees YOU, you ugly."

Hadley admits, "My calligraphy has been my biggest point of criticism. It just takes patience. It's an art form. Poetry needs time and my stuff slows people down. Neighbor Island people read it the best."

Just looking at his skinny waistline, you can tell that he doesn't eat much. But his gray hair is neatly brushed, mustache trimmed. He's the first poet I've met who carries an attache case. His academic New England accent comes from teaching art there.

Native son comes home

However, Brudda Joe's heart is in Hawai'i — Kaua'i, to be exact, where he was born and grew up. He returned on Sept. 1, 2001, and has been a pure poet ever since. The poems have been inside him waiting to be let out.

"I was a graduate student in art at the University of Hawai'i in 1969 when I went hiking in Waimea Canyon with two other guys," he explained. "We wanted to hike to the head of the canyon. The river became a stream, the stream became a waterfall."

Hadley said the other two hikers turned back. He went on alone to the booming waterfall, enveloped in the forces of nature, spirits all around him. "It was after that the pidgin started," he said.

Brudda Joe said he doesn't remember learning pidgin on Kaua'i. "It was just what happened at school. At age 12 or 13, I was conscious of switching; pidgin at school, English at home. My mother was head of the library system on Kaua'i. My father was managing editor of the Garden Island newspaper."

Wilderness and haiku

Harley compares his poems to haiku. It started because he enjoys the wilderness: "I took my composition book and felt pen with me and sat quietly and pretty soon I was getting answers."

Such as: "You gotta live um aloha, not jus put stickah on da car."

And: "You know something? You no can force. You know why, eh? Das you you're forcing an you backfire."

Hadley said he composes in pidgin because it's inclusive. He's translating his first book of poetry to suit the cultures that form it: Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, American and Hawaiian.

His work is used by a university poetry professor in class. To wit: "What you mean develop? You mean destruction."

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.