Sokoya, I said looking through
the net of wrinkles into
wise black pools
of her eyes.
What do you say in Athabascan
when you leave each other?
What is the word
for goodbye?
A shade of feeling rippled
the wind- tanned skin,
Ah, nothing, she said,
watching the river flash.
She looked at me close.
We just say Ttaa. That means,
See you.
We never leave each other.
When does your mouth
say goodbye to your heart?
She touched me light
as a bluebell.
You forget when you leave us;
you're so small then.
We don't use that word.
We always think you're coming back,
but if you don't
we'll see you someplace else.
You understand.
There is no word for goodbye.
by Mary TallMountain
Two Girls
I'm never sad,
I'm never glad,
All I am
Is two girls' dad.
Ron Robinson
August, 2009
The Owl and the Seagull
(adapted from "The Owl and the
Pussycat" by Edward Lear)
The Owl and the Seagull went off to sea
in a beautiful tea green boat;
They took some honey and plenty of money
wrapped up in a silken coat.
The Owl looked up to the stars above
and sang to an old sitar:
"Oh dazzling Seagull, Oh Seagull my love,
what a sleek dazzling Seagull you are,
You are,
You are!
What a sleek dazzling Seagull you are!"
Seagull said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl,
how charmingly sweet you sing!
Oh, I'm glad we were married before we were buried,
but we need much more than a ring!"
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
to the land where the tea tree grows,
And there in the wood, a tea merchant stood,
with two steaming cups perched on his toes,
His toes,
His toes,
With two steaming cups perched on his toes.
"Dear Sir, are you willing to sell for one shilling
your cups?" Said the tea man, "I will."
So they took them away, and made merry next day
by the cherry tree lodged on the hill.
They dined on tea cakes that the tea man bakes
which they ate with a serrated spoon;
And cups in hand with bare feet in the sand
they sipped by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They sipped by the light of the moon.
Terri Coppa
August, 2009
Note: The Seagull is, in Taoist terminology,
Daniel's "Primordial Spirit," or totem animal.
And Snow's totem is the Owl. So we asked
cousin Terri to compose a poem for us, based
on "The Owl and the Pussycat."
Three Reasons for Leaving
1) the onset of hypertension,
perhaps in the vermilion
of a shin mein preparation,
a prescription for the
very first reason.
2) the senility of sensibility
and the partition of
symbol and reality.
3) the fantasmic television
and the embattled
nervous system.
3 reasons for leaving before
acquiring a taste for
repression.
Sean Sanz
I don't know what's come over me
I never
decided
to be a
writer--
much less
a poet--
it just
came over
me.
Sean Sanz
Ishi
square tongues speak brick words
that couple into nothing,
surrounded by hair and flowers.
decay of fruit and love and sex,
all subside into chemical contemplation,
alcohol and buzzing bees, sweet sticky scents.
police machines chop the sky into thistles of noise and fear—
I pick up and carry a river on my back,
a cloak of home to drape across the shoulders of the world, enfolding streams and stones.