Wherever my eyes fall - November 2018
From Many Winters, 1974, by Nancy Wood
Wherever my eyes fall
I see you everywhere.
In the still pond gathering ice
To conceal itself from winter
You are the deep shy water.
In the slow built sparrow's nest
Of infinite eggs and seasons
You are the mother to spring.
In summer flowers bursting
Down from the mountaintop
You are a wild and fragile dancer.
In the autumn wind at odds
With the disappearing leaves
You are the promise of next year.
Wherever my eyes fall
I see you everywhere.
You have thus become my vision
As my eyes go blind with years.
I would like to be a tree - October 2018
From War Cry on a Prayer Feather, 1979, by Nancy Wood
I would like to be a tree
but you would cut me down.
I would like to be a river
but you would build a dam.
I would like to be a bird
but you would poison what I eat.
I would like to be a deer
but you would shoot me for my meat.
I would like to be a fish
but you would catch me in your net.
I would like to be a coyote
but you would want me for my skin.
I would like to be a grizzly bear
but you would kill me because I'm rare.
I would like to be a flower
but you would pick me to take home.
I would like to be what I am.
Is there any hope for that?
Time takes me on its wing - September 2018
From Hollering Sun, 1972, by Nancy Wood
Time takes me on its wing
and I travel to the sun
And am consumed by fire.
Time takes me on its wing
and I travel to the river
And am drowned in water.
Time takes me on its wing
And I travel into the earth
And am a mountain not yet risen.
Each place that I go
Others have gone before me.
That is why
The sun dances
The wind weeps
The river leaps
And the earth sings.
Neither the sun nor the wind
The river nor the earth
Did these things
Before man was placed in the world
To believe it.
The Peculiar Grace of Men - August 2018
From Wild Love, 1996, by Nancy Wood (unpublished)
He never dances, except with me, in
a swirl of love and half-remembered music
that pours from his lips as he turns me
toward him like a bird. His is not a dancer's body,
but that of a man accustomed to living life
in the raw. He is clumsy on his feet and cannot
keep rhythm to the simplest tune. The peculiar grace
of men in love saves them from awkwardness,
especially when women don't notice
the way such creatures
trample on their feet.
Many winters I have lived - July 2018
From Many Winters, 1974, by Nancy Wood
Many winters I have lived
Ever since the beginning of time
When the first snow fell
Covering the tired earth
Which played with endless summer.
Many winters I held the water captive
On the tops of many mountains
Still warm from the earth's beginning
When the moon and the sun gave birth
To one full circle of beauty.
Many winters I blew the stars around
So that the place where each star fell
Was where a river grew
Taking as its course to the sea
The path of the winter sun.
Many winters the trees slept with me
And the animals walked on my breast
Just as the birds drew near
Seeking warmth from my fire
Which took the sting from the night.
Many winters I have been
Companion to the lonely moon
Chasing after the raging sun
Which listened to our song of thanks
Before releasing earth from winter.
Many winters I have lived
Ever since the beginning of time
When out of the melting snow
Came the first frail flower which said
I am the spirit of spring.