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title: "The wise mōlī soars in the calm:  more poetry in the service of albatross and petrel conservation"
---

# The wise mōlī soars in the calm:  more poetry in the service of albatross and petrel conservation

Regular visitors to *ACAP Latest News* will have noticed from this year an irregular series of postings that deal with poetry that has an albatross or a petrel theme.

 Aside from the intrinsic interest of the verses the series has the serious aim of bringing the Albatross and Petrel Agreement to the attention of a wider audience, which, it is hoped, will include individuals who may not otherwise be aware of the serious conservation issues the [29 ACAP-listed species](https://acap.aq/acap-species) face.

 To date, postings have covered poems in all three official ACAP languages:  by [Roy Campbell, Samuel Taylor Coleridge](https://acap.aq/latest-news/poetry-in-the-service-of-albatrosses-and-petrels) and [Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll)](https://acap.aq/latest-news/lewis-carroll-and-the-albatross-the-mad-gardeners-song) in English, by [Charles Baudelaire](https://acap.aq/latest-news/charles-baudelaire-and-lalbatros-a-compassionate-french-poem-in-the-service-of-conservation) in French and by [Pablo Neruda and Eduardo Langagne](https://acap.aq/latest-news/pablo-neruda-and-eduardo-langagne-two-south-american-poets-who-have-written-movingly-of-albatrosses) in Spanish.

 The following lines are in the Hawaiian language and celebrate the long life of a now 61-year old Laysan Albatross or Mōlī *Phoebetria immutabilis*, known as Wisdom.

 Kaha ka mōlī maliʻu i ka laʻi  
Holo mālie i ke ao hoʻomakua  
He makua paʻamua i ke one neʻineʻi  
I ō a i ʻaneʻi i ka moana nui

 The wise mōlī soars in the calm  
travelling serenely in the hoʻomakua sky.  
A reverent parent on the low-lying sands  
far and wide in the great ocean

 "Hoʻomakua is one of the traditional ways of describing a level of sky, one above the surface of the earth, but not too lofty". It is one of the levels in which birds such as mōlī would fly."

 ![](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/L/Laysan/laysan_albatross_wisdom_john_klavitter.jpg)  
Wisdom with her 2010/11 season's chick  
Photograph by John Klavitter

 With grateful thanks to Sam ‘Ohu Gon III of [The Nature Conservancy](http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/hawaii/index.htm) in Hawaii for permission to post his [mele or oli](http://www.sacred-texts.com/pac/ulh/ulh44.htm) (a chant or song), and its translation, produced in honour of [Wisdom A. Laysan Albatross](http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003099446999&sk=wall) of the [Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge](http://www.fws.gov/midway/aboutus.html), and to [Wisdom](https://acap.aq/latest-news/wisdom-the-worlds-oldest-known-albatross-is-back-on-midway-with-a-new-egg-and-joins-the-electronic-age) herself for making the connection.

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 6 December 2011*