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

God's drum, and other cycles from Indian lore

Chapter 32: I AM RUNNING
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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.

I AM RUNNING

I am running a swift race:
My body is painted with the symbols of swiftness;
In my hair are the plumes of swift-flying birds;
Tight-clasped, I hold in my hand a charm.
Who is he who is running beside me?
His shadow is purple and very angry;
His shadow is very swift;
I dare not look about.
Something scarlet is bobbing before my eyes——
Something which I should remember....
Is it a beautiful flower?
Or is it ... something which I should remember?
The goal is a gleaming mountain:
Before I can touch it
I must cross a dark canyon,
I must cross the purple shadows of deep earth.