*
Tonight I go alone
to the Stone-People-Lodge
To the drumming in the lodge
To the people calling, chanting
down the bones of ancient eagles
and the deities of granite near
a pregnant fir tree humming,
offering sap that danced out freely
in the Dreamtime of our mothers
who perceive us in their future
which is Now, as we are waiting
in their lodge of seven colors
like a rainbow bridge of feathers –
insubstantial in our bodies;
only present in our yearnings
in our brayings
in our dreamings; there
our bodies they are gleaming
with the cleansing
and the healing
and the long-awaited joining
with the elder tribal peoples
sister raven
grandma mugwort
So then will come the sound of angels
tying all our lives together
in the falling of their fire
and the raindrops in their wingsong
Burning breathing
smokedeyes squeezing
as the tears release from from spirits
at the deaths of all our baggage
We are joined by silver navel cords
to all of Our Relations
we are dancing in the Moebius strip
of despairing elation
Dance the memory of Realtime
Dance the flow of sap in pine trees
Dancing out of sacred lodges
in the sun,
never alone.
***
This poem was written to the sound of an internal rattle while waiting for a ride (in a shopping mall, of all places) several hours before I was to go into my first Inipi ceremony with the late Wallace Black Elk. Everything that came in the poem also later came to pass in the tipi. It was nice of the spirits to provide a program!
Can I come next time? : )
You bet!
Owrooooooooooooooo!!!!