Shadows Passing Through the Light
@2021 Turtle Heart
on the question
of the Sacred Pipes
of the Five Nations of the Long River peoples
at the Eastern Gate (CT)...
there was a sacred pipe right there
some of you may remember
we had sacred people at one time
we were cherished at that time with ceremonies and
precious teachings of sacred pipes and heated stones
and songs carried up from the earth in our bones
prayers some people called it
there was a man and his wife standing there
standing right there making that smoke
making those prayers
those sacred people went everywhere
up into the sky deep in the forest
and across all the wide waters
returning through the open gate
of the blue sky carried by the Great Wind
and gave us our blankets and places and words
and our names
and even our silence
and all our feathers
carried all this sacred right into our open arms
and we carried all of this, just this far
and forgot about it
stopped trusting it
left it on a little island
even when all the doors were open
we just left it there
and grumped and shrugged and pointed
some fingers
at the empty arms
the empty space where once our sacred
really was
while pretending it is all something else
while pretending it was someplace else
while pretending it must be someone else
pretending is not knowledge
knowledge is knowledge in the same way
the earth is our mother
and it is there, where the wind will carry us
even if we are standing still
waiting for even one of us to wake up
and take up again (and again)
that which was put down
and covered in doubt
as the real and actual sacred
leaked out into the dust
into the might have been
into the should have been
into the could have been
into what might be even once again…
(Prequel the beginning: 1981-2021)
he was a keeper of all the sacred objects
their ceremonies, songs, and silences
if he asked for a drum or a stone or smoke
it was passed down and over
without delay or question
somewhere along the way he became an old man
on a little island
and no one heard what he said
or understood what he was asking for
the world changed just like that
and even the old trees burned
and even the old songs were forgotten
and even the sacred settled into the dust
of an empty house below the blue sky
where even eagles carried their babies
to teach them how to fly
and see from far way
all those open hands in the waiting world
searching for objects, ceremonies, songs and silences
finding nothing
(Just in case someone might be paying attention)
Turtle Heart
Equinox of Fall : Mudjeekwas
Pantelleria Italy
