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

God's drum, and other cycles from Indian lore

Chapter 36: THE SERRIED ROCKIES
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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 SERRIED ROCKIES

Great Shields brunting the plain, motionless:
The red Warriors peer over them stonily.
The lances of Morning are flung aloft!
The Plains rise up with a fierce cry——
The Tribes of the Dawn are exultant!
Great Shields brunting the plain, purple after the day:
The dark Warriors peer over them grimly.