Native American Songs and Poems (2 page)
Read Native American Songs and Poems Online
Authors: Brian Swann
[YAQUI]
Many pretty flowers, red, blue, and yellow.
We say to the girls, “Let us go
and walk among the flowers.”
The wind comes and sways the flowers.
The girls are like that when they dance.
Some are wide-open, large flowers, and
some are tiny little flowers.
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The birds love the sunshine and the starlight.
The flowers smell sweet.
The girls are sweeter than the flowers.
[PIMA]
The grey quails bunched tight together.
Above, Coyote trotted by.
He stopped. He looked.
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The blue quails ran and huddled together.
Coyote looked at them,
sideways.
[PIMA]
I am the Black Bear. Around me
You see the clouds swirling.
I am the Black Bear. Around me
You see the dew fall.
7
[HAVASUPAI]
The land we were given
is right here,
right here.
Red rock
streaked with brown
shooting up high
all round our home.
Red rock
shooting up high
right here.
A spring will always be there
down at its foot.
From way back
it is ours.
Right down
the center of our land
a line moves,
bright blue-green.
This is what I'm thinking.
At the edge of the water
cattails appear,
bright blue-green,
all round the water.
This is what I'm thinking.
At the edge of the water
foam is forming,
swirling, swirling.
At the edge of the water
silt is being laid down
in ripples.
This is what I'm thinking.
Water skaters walk,
gliding, gliding.
This is what I'm thinking.
Water grasses growing,
bright blue-green
under the water,
waving, waving.
This is what I'm thinking:
Under the water
tiny pebbles.
Flowing over them
the water we drink.
The water is gliding toward the north,
into the distance, beyond our sight.
That is what I'm thinking.
We have arrived here.
An illness.
I sit down,
I sing myself a song.
This is what I'm thinking:
A medicine spirit,
a healer,
I am the same.
An illness.
I sit down.
I sing myself a song.
The things I have named
I leave behind.
This is what I'm thinking.
We arrive there.
We are leaving the canyon.
Out on the rim
horses that are mine.
They roam there
at the junipers,
where the junipers are straight,
and low.
They are right there,
horses that are mine
are gathered there.
This is what I'm thinking.
Here we arrive, then
we swing back down,
moving back down the rocks,
white rocks streaked with brown.
Down at the foot
a spring will always be there,
a spring that heals,
it is right there.
My horses drink the water
that is there.
White rock streaked with brown
shooting up high
is right there.
There is my horse's trail,
zigzagging right down the center,
the color of dust.
It leads to
the source.
It is right here.
That is what I'm thinking.
And now we arrive
down in the canyon,
red rocks,
down in the canyon,
they are right here,
down in the canyon,
red rocks, low down,
they are right here.
Here I walk,
I go alone.
This is what I'm thinking.
Red rocks, streaked with brown,
shooting up high.
It is right here,
down at the foot,
red rocks, boulders
streaked with brown.
They are right here.
My illness is absorbed,
right here.
I will this to be.
I will this to be.
8
[ARAPAHO]
How bright the moonlight
how bright the moonlight
as I ride in with my load of buffalo meat
My father did not recognize me.
Next time he saw me he said,
You are the child of a crow
.
I am looking at my father
I am looking at him
he is beginning to turn into a bird
turning into a bird
They say
the spirit army is approaching,
the spirit army is approaching,
the whole world is moving onward,
the whole world is moving onward.
See, everybody is standing, watching.
Everybody is standing, watching.
The whole world is coming,
a nation is coming, a nation is coming.
The Eagle has brought the message to the people.
The father says so, the father says so.
Over the whole earth they are coming.
The buffalo are coming, the buffalo are coming.
The Crow has brought the message to the people,
the father says so, the father says so.
My children, my children,
it is I who wear the morning star on my head.
It is I who wear the morning star on my head.
I show it to my children.
I show it to my children.
[PAIUTE]
Â
Snowy earth
comes
swirling
ahead
of the whirlwind
ahead
of the whirlwind
snowy earth
swirling
9
[LUISEÃO]
The ant has his season;
he has opened his house.
When the days grow warm he comes out.
The spider has her house and her hill.
The butterfly has her enclosure.
The chipmunk and squirrel have their hollowed logs for acorns.
It is time for the eagle to take off.
It will soon be time for the acorns to fall from the trees.
In the north the bison have their breeding grounds,
and the elk drops her young.
In the east the the mountain sheep
and the horned toad have their young.
In the south other animals give birth.
In the west the ocean is heaving,
tossing its waves back and forth.
Here, at this place, the deer sheds his hair
and the acorns grow fat.
the sky sheds, changing color,
white clouds swept away.
The Milky Way lies stretched out on its back,
making a humming sound.
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From the door of my house I recognize in the distance
Nahut, the stick used to beat Coyote, and Kashlapish,
the ringing stones. I look up.
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Look: Antares is rising,
Altair is rising. The Milky Way,
Venus is rising.
10
[WINTU]
above
above
you and I shall go
you and I shall go
along the Milky Way
along the trail of flowers
you and I shall go
picking flowers on our way
you and I shall go
flowers droop
flowers rise back up
above
the place where
the minnow sleeps while
her fins move slowly
back & forward
forward
&
back
Where will you and I sleep?
At the down-turned jagged rim of the sky you
& I will sleep.
above
rise
will swaying
of people like women
The spirits
while men dance,
swaying with dandelion puffs
in their hands.
spirits are wafted along the roof &
at the Earthlodge of the South
there above
There above
fall.
Flowers bend heavily on their stems.
Above
in the west, in the flat of the flowers
strange flowers bloom,
flowers with crests
bending to the east.
[NEWE]
Song Woman
sits beating the rhythm of her song.
Song Woman
sits beating the rhythm of her song
there in a distant place,
next to her cousin, the water,
beating the rhythm of her song,
beating the rhythm of her song.
There, in a distant place, she sits in an arroyo.
There, in a distant place, she sits in an arroyo
winnowing the pine nuts,
by the red-rock-wooded place
winnowing the pine nuts.
11
[NOOTKA]
You only achieve this with old age:
I look like a sea-parrot
with white patches
on each side of my head.
Try to become old as fast as you can.
I look so handsome.
[HAIDA]
Â
You
where have you
fallen
from
fallen
You
have been
falling
falling
Have you
fallen
from the top
of the salmon-
berry bushes
falling
falling
[TSIMSHIAN]
Â
As I sit here in the valley
all the heart has gone out of me.
Â
I threw a stone at the blue grouse
12
on the side of the mountain.
Â
It hit her, and she flew off.
I re-wove the rotten fish-basket,
Â
fixed it up for use again in the
foothills. But, sick at heart,
Â
I have cut it to pieces. While
I was weaving another, a bat flew
Â
right at me.
2
I will not do what
it orders, the small moth-spirit
Â
that flew at me here in the valley.
Right here in the valley,
Â
all the heart has gone out of me.
3
[TSIMSHIAN]
Â
This little girl
only born to
gather wild roses.
Only born to
shake the wild rice loose
with her little fingers.
Only to collect the sap
of young hemlocks
in spring. This woman-
child was only born
to pick strawberries,
fill baskets with
blueberries, soapberries,
elderberries. This
little girl was
only born to
gather wild roses.
13
[INUIT]
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I am happy.
This is good.
There is nothing but ice all around.
That is good.
I am happy.
This is good.
For land we have slush.
That is good.
I am happy.
This is good.
When I do not know enough
It is good.
When I tire of being awake
I begin to wake.
It gives me joy.
[INUIT]
The animals are beautiful.
There is no song about it
since words are hard to findâ
Seals on the ice down there
â
When I found a few words
I fastened them to the musicâ
they left for their breathing holes
â
The animals are beautiful.
There is no song about it
since words are hard to findâ
Antlered caribou on the land over there
â
When I found a few words
I fastened them to the musicâ
when it crossed the tundra over there
â
The animals are beautiful.
There is no song about it
since words are hard to findâ
Bearded seals on the ice down here
â
When I found a few words
I fastened them to the music
when they left for their breathing holes.
[INUIT]
Â
It is glorious
when the caribou herds leave the forests
and begin to wander northward.
They are on the alert for deep pitfalls in the snow,
the great herds from the forests,
when they spread out over the snowâ
they are glorious!
It is glorious
when early summer's thin-coated caribou begin to wander;
when at Haningassoq, down there, over the promontories,
they mill back and forth looking for a crossing place.
It is glorious
when the great musk oxen
down there, glossy, black,
cluster in small groups
to face and watch the dogs.
When they bunch together like that
they are glorious!
The women down there are glorious
when they go visiting the houses in small flocks,
and the men down there suddenly feel
the need to boast and prove their manhood,
while the women try to catch them in a lie!
It is glorious
when the winter caribou with their thick coats
begin their trek back, in toward the forests.
They are glorious!
They look about anxiously for people.
When they are moving in toward the forests
they are glorious!
The enormous herds are glorious
when they begin to wander down there by the sea,
down by the beach.
The creaking whisper of hooves when they begin to wander aroundâ
oh, it is glorious!
[INUIT]
Â
Isn't it lovely,
the little river cutting through the gorge
when you approach it slowly
while trout are standing
behind stones in the stream?
Â
Isn't it lovely,
the river's thick grass banks?
But I shall never again
meet Willow Twig, my dear friend
I long to see again.
Well, that's how it is.
The winding run
of the stream through the gorge
is lovely.
Â
Isn't it lovely,
the bluish rocky island out there
when you approach it slowly?
What does it matter
that the blowing spirits of the air
stray over the rocks
because the island is lovely
when you approach it
at an easy pace
and haul it in?