Tuesday, June 4, 2019

native



i am native
here; my blood is real, it is long, it runs deep
like the river of my spirit, i cloth my skin in your skin
brother it is my skin ,the length of it, the longing
of it to movement - towards the great waters - towards
the laughter of the crow-bird, of the fleeting fox, i

am women
i dance to the rivers within me, i dance to
those spirits i carry they
dance to be born...
they dance to be born...through my river...

i am native, i
am woman
i dance to the songs of the mother who sings
to me, to my spirit whole and long with breasts unbound
by words un-tongued; i am ritual
the rain weeps on my feathered wing and

i dance

it calls me run, it
calls me dance
it calls me dance towards the dusk time red and starring
towards the morning dark longing for my light, i call
the wind, i call its eagle, i call the unborn
to sing and quicken within, i am native
i am woman

skinned in my sacred brother

i dance

bkmacenzie 2019
copyrighted


in honor of my beautiful mother...whose dance was not long enough



imaginary garden with real toads


15 comments:

  1. What a lovely tribute to your mother.

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  2. Your poem is beautiful. I love the way you dance through the lines. The lines that particularly resonate with me are:
    ‘I dance to the songs of the mother who sings
    to me, to my spirit whole and long with breasts unbound
    by words un-tongued’
    and
    ‘it calls me dance towards the dusk time red and starring
    towards the morning dark longing for my light’.

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    1. thank you so much Kim...it really is a womans poem...bkm

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  3. I really love how you have chosen to dance... it's a wonderful way to move (I used to dance myself a bit) let life bring you music.

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    1. life is music...just in a different form...everything is singing...bkm

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  4. AH! The beauty of this verse lies in the evocation of its power and identity — the repetitions and forms of wordplay create a certain entrancing rhythm for this dance.
    This bit is especially wonderful in this lovely tribute: "i dance to the songs of the mother who sings/to me, to my spirit whole and long with breasts unbound/by words un-tongued; i am ritual/the rain weeps on my feathered wing..."

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. thanks Anmol, there is something so primal about dance...especially native dance with rhythms of the earth and the animals...we are to far removed from the earth...bkm

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  5. beautiful - but the "unbound breasts" resonates with me. We women are taught early on to strap them up, don't wear shirts without a bra... it really is strange how we have this "rule". In this poem, it seems freeing and true. Lovely poem for your mother.

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    1. thank you Margaret- i think the image of unbound breasts for women is the symbol of having and unbound life....and as women freedom at times is a not available...bkm

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  6. Two ways I read -- first as a virtually native dance , the second as shod in that wind in order to get closer to a truth. Either way the purity and reverence and abandon say there are still rivers to wake and walk by ..

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    1. closer to truth...something we must all look for within...thank you Brendan...bkm

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  7. What a truly beautiful dance, and tribute to your mother. As I read, I thought how we are all native to our individual lands, those of our birth and those of our heritage. No greater beauty than to be true to ethnicity.

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  8. thank you Kerry..yes we all native and finding our true self in our heritage is a blessing that i believe gives us roots and purpose....bkm

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