Nancy Wood Literary Trust

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.

From Hollering Sun, 1972, by Nancy Wood

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.

From Hollering Sun, 1972, by Nancy Wood

My brother the star, my mother the earth, my father the sun, my sister the moon, to my life give beauty, to my body give strength, to my corn give goodness, to my house give peace, to my spirit give truth, to my elders give wisdom.

From Hollering Sun, 1972, by Nancy Wood

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.

From Hollering Sun, 1972, by Nancy Wood

My horse took me down the life-giving road

Drawing his breath as he went

His breath of strong spirit

His breath of power to plow and to pull.

But now he is old

And his breath is of feathers and corn.

I add to his breath

The breath of my own

And pray to his old age of riches.