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

God's drum, and other cycles from Indian lore

Chapter 68: XOCHIQUETZAL
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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.

XOCHIQUETZAL

Radiant Lily, there where thou standest
Exhaling fragrance,
A Butterfly to thy lips clinging,——
Radiant Lily,
I thank thee.
Upon the lips of the Goddess of Flowers
A Butterfly is clinging——
Upon the lips of the Goddess of Life
An iridescent Butterfly,
Sipping the sweets,
Fanning its wings in her breath.
Is she not beautiful——
The Lily of Life?
Exhaling her fragrance,
With golden pollen fruitful,
Summoning the Winged Spirits?