From Hollering Sun, 1972, by Nancy Wood
Never shall I leave the places that I love;
Never shall they go from my heart
Even though my eyes
Are somewhere else.
Presenting the poetry, books, and photographs of Nancy Wood, 1936-2013
Never shall I leave the places that I love;
Never shall they go from my heart
Even though my eyes
Are somewhere else.
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.
Blue lake of life from which flows everything good.
We rejoice with the spirits beneath your waters.
The lake and the earth and the sky
Are all around us.
The voices of many gods
Are all within us.
We are now as one with rock and tree
As one with eagle and crow
As one with deer and coyote
As one with all things
That have been placed here by the Great Spirit.
The sun that shines upon us
The wind that wipes our faces clean of fear
The stars that guide us on this journey
To our blue lake of life
We rejoice with you.
In beauty it is begun.
In beauty it is begun.
In peace it is finished.
In peace it shall never end.
All as it was in this place timeless.
All as it was between the human soul and the earth
For there is no difference between
The life of a man and the life
Of all growing things.
Who is to say if a man
Shall not be a tree instead?
We pray to all of nature and do it no harm.
These are our brothers
All men and all animals and all trees.
Some part of ourselves
Is in earth and sky and everywhere.
It shall continue
As long as nature follows its own purpose.
It shall continue
As long as we know what we are doing here.