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

God's drum, and other cycles from Indian lore

Chapter 41: THE ORIGIN OF DEATH
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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 ORIGIN OF DEATH

In the Day ere Man came,
In the Morning of Life,
They came together,
The Father, the Mother,
Debating.
“Forever they shall live,
“Our Children,
“When they are born Men
“Forever they shall live,”
Said the Father,
Said the Mother.
But the little Bird cried,
Ah, the little Bird cried:
“How shall I nest me——
“How shall I nest me
“In their warm graves
“If men live forever?”