DEDICATIONS, PLEDGES, COMMITMENTS. For the past. For my own path. For surprises. For mistakes that worked so well. For tomorrow if I'm there. For the next real thing. Then for carrying it all through whatever is necessary. For following the little god who speaks only to me. --William Stafford

Monday, May 15, 2006

NAQUAMUYSEE'S LULLABY


Soft summer thunder
drums distant and brings
a wild velvet rush
to the red hawk's wings,
and the black pony Night
rides a dark warm wind
where the new moon skates
at the shadow's end.

Sleep warm, sleep dry
in a buffalo skin
on the Black Pony's back,
on a dark warm wind,
and the corn stalks ripple
and the squash blooms fold,
and sleep runs easy
like a swift dark colt,

and sleep runs easy
like a swift dark colt.

3 comments:

Joyce Ellen Davis said...

Naquamuysee=Prayer Feathers Flown Bright

Jeanell said...

Such a beautiful poem. I am still pursuing sleep that comes easy.

Are you perchance a descendent of Naquamuysee, grandmother of Tuvengayumse [Qoyawayma]- Anna who married Charles Fredericks [Tuwahoeoma]? Oraibi, Hopi Reservation. If so, I have some genealogical data you may be interested in.

Jeanell said...

Such a beautiful poem. I am still pursuing sleep that comes easy.

Are you perchance a descendent of Naquamuysee, grandmother of Tuvengayumse [Qoyawayma]- Anna who married Charles Fredericks [Tuwahoeoma]? Oraibi, Hopi Reservation. If so, I have some genealogical data you may be interested in.

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1. In dreams I am often young and thin with long blond hair. 2. In real life I am no longer young, or thin, or blonde. 3. My back hurts. 4. I hate to sleep alone. (Fortunately I don't have to!) 5. My great grandfather had 2 wives at once. 6. I wish I had more self-discipline. (I was once fired from a teaching position in a private school because they said I was "too unstructured and undisciplined." --Who, me??? Naaaahhh....) 7. I do not blame my parents for this. Once, at a parent-teacher conference, the teacher told me my little boy was "spacey." We ALL are, I told her. The whole fan damily is spacey. She thought I was kidding. I wasn't. 8. I used to travel with a theater reperatory company. My parents weren't happy about this. 9. My mother was afraid that I would run off and paint flowers on my cheeks and live in a commune, and grow vegetables. I once smoked pot. ONE TIME. 10. I don't drink or smoke. (Or swear, much. Well, I drink milk, and water, and orange juice, and stuff. Cocoa. I love Pepsi.) 11. Most of my friends are invisible. 12. I am a poet and a writer. All of my writing on these pages is copyrighted. Borrowing (without acknowledgment) is a sin.