Alan Drengson, 1978, LightStar Press, Victoria BC
Water and Stone
Feathers & Bone
Skills of Skills
Where We Must Go
Water and Stone
Water and stone
their major needs—
their tools,
their skills,
their active deeds
brought them food and shelter.
Clothes in pounded bark;
baskets in cattails;
berries and fat
make pemmican,
power for the cold.
Resources on four feet;
animal hides make robes
for comfort
in this land
of Great Spirit bounty.
This land of winds,
of waters winding,
of grasses growing
and forests glowing
in the setting sun.
The Rockies,
backbones to this land,
these rocks
in riven stones for the hand
to mold the tools,
express their art,
find release
from darkness in the heart.
In hogans, tipis, longhouses,
and huts,
adobe, cliff dwellings,
and in the open air,
shamans practise healing arts
with cactus, mushrooms,
and other plants’
animals for allies
were their helping friends.
The Eastern hardwood forests
held a multitude of treasures:
venison, turkeys,
acorns, squash,
potatoes, & tobacco.
They grew many things,
these people
organized by councils
and fire meets,
with simple buildings
village streets,
communities of friends.
Canoes the craft they rode
and plied the waters
from East to West
and North to South,
a-voyaging with the voyageurs.
The horse
the culture of the prairie folk,
pursuing the buffalo
with the lance & bow.
They spread from the Bering
following the herds
with the seasons,
settling from the Arctic
to Tierra del Fuego.
What did these hunters
and gatherers know?
Feathers & Bone
feathers and bone,
water and stone,
twelve pebbles rattle
in a gourd—
carved sacred pipe,
smoke cast
in six directions—
cross legged, sit
before the fire.
Silence.
listen to the wind,
Great Spirit moving,
rivers rolling sound,
dry grass blowing,
rain falling,
snow balling
under soft-clad feet.
Seasons pass.
lean years, fat,
how many moons
crescent coming,
crescent passing,
how many moons
blossom full
fall sky
how many moons
cows full, cows dry
how many moons
in stillness lie
following stars
across the sky
holding an agate
grains of sand
crystals glisten
in the hand—
how many moons pass
timeless, still.
Haze makes passage with the light.
Milky Way signs in the night.
Frogs and crickets pause to hear
A Presence.
Skills of Skills
With only stone
for tools
those gatherers,
those hunters.
Hey! They were strong people!
They fasted,
chanted,
sun-danced,
practised healing arts
with ally plants.
Ancestor animals
appeared in visions;
subconscious guardians
of an archetype
guide the hunt.
A drum dance sound
accompanied their feet;
Bear power,
Buffalo power,
Eagle power,
Deer,
Hawk eyes,
Raven cries,
drum dance chant.
Their fears—
legends of the hunt
and coup—
painted on the rocks,
counted by the suns,
the moons, the seasons.
With puny weapons
the hunt required
meticulous preparation:
A clear mind,
river plunge purification.
Children of the sun,
sit in meditation,
fast before the hunt.
Unify themselves,
engage this art and practice.
Their skill was
their control of fear;
their still minds
in danger
saw them through.
They lived in a sacred circle
in this Eden earth;
its cycles were their pulse;
its Great Spirit
in their hearts.
They fasted,
prayed to be worthy,
watched and waited.
Their arts were focused
in their wills;
this hunt—
a meditation—
The seeker’s
skill of skills.
Where We Must Go
Wordsmith,
writing out your melodies,
what more do you have
for us to see?
A vision,
a tale,
a story often told,
a quest for meaning
a search for the golden grail.
Seeking the secrets of the rings
and the cycles of all things,
we search for peace & harmony
and a balanced way of being.
So far,
we’ve also seen pain.
What else remains?
Not more of the same;
for now we know
where we must go:
On through the wilderness land,
on to the wild soul.