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God's drum, and other cycles from Indian lore cover

God's drum, and other cycles from Indian lore

Chapter 19: THE THUNDER
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About This Book

A sequence of poems evokes dawn through dusk, prairie winds and dust, ritual dances and spirit songs, and mythic reckonings framed as a red apocalypse. Later cycles portray terraced Pueblo landscapes, potters, corn maidens, and ruined pueblos, while final pieces invoke Aztec gods and cosmology. The language is lyrical and imagistic, alternating intimate observation of natural life with ceremonially inflected reflections on death, renewal, and the drumlike rhythms of the earth.

THE THUNDER

I am the Thunder,
I am the Thunder,——
Sometimes I go
Pitying myself....
Sometimes in wonder
Grieving through the skies....
Many Thunders are gone,
Many Thunders are flown
In the old days,——
Great Birds of Night,
Rain-laden Birds
With flame-blinking eyes....
I am the Thunder,
I am the Thunder,——
Oft-times alone,
Oft-times in wonder
Pitying myself....
Oft-times in fright
Of mine own sounding words,
Grieving through the night,——
I, the winged Thunder....