head down --> : eyes up
a quick incision : a lightning cut
head up : eyes down
wizened he : he scowls
focused he : he growls
and I am seeing double : double I am
I have been all along! : all along the line
a mirror at my brow : cut into my brow
a mirror: all this trouble! : all this trouble
a quick incision : a lightning cut
head up : eyes down
wizened he : he scowls
focused he : he growls
and I am seeing double : double I am
I have been all along! : all along the line
a mirror at my brow : cut into my brow
a mirror: all this trouble! : all this trouble
she is mine! she was mine!
I yearn
I burn
I pine
But for the owl
I would not be here
you see?
But for the owl,
Say I. I say,
What then is it?
This thing that flies
and guides my hand and mind
To those like you
Who see into me
And cast a wide, wide
net so fine
who cast into and through
my very soul as it careens
on this, a journey
Centered in Nowhere : Centered upon the Buffalo
& Founded on lies
Now, all hope set I upon the
Stony Maid
Who was taken from me
She was taken from our
home! Our lovelorn cave!
I remember. I remember! I remember I!
And remembering
I grow brave.
And remembering
I feel a perfect woe.
I own it. This woe.
I hold it. This woe.
It is my own.
It is my own and only mine.
There is no letting go.
No, I say it
and make it so.
The owl
He is your totem
The owl
He is your power
Take him into your
Heart and make there a perfect bower
Make your chest an open
board
The taking is an Art : The taking is an Art!
Take him into your
Eyes, widen them to two perfect towers
Make your face an open
tome
The taking is a Sigh : The taking is a Sigh!
And a third place
And a fourth too
And on And on And on
Take him
into you
And make the start
Take him
and start anew
Words said, I am moved
and so take I the owl
into my heart
and mine eyes
and the other places
all with a sigh
till rising through
on a latticed line
it claims my soul right through
its heart now beats with mine
Hejana hejana nethai
He is a woodsman : A woodsman am I!
Hejana hejana nethai
He is a woodsman : A woodsman am I!
And he, this hoary hunter,
this grizzled jink,
cuts spiral signs into my arm
And words into my mind
splayed out like crimson flames
are they
spread out like fiery leaves
they are
Cascading they fall
falling they cascade
for great long hours!
for eternal, languid days!
They fall
And fall
And stay
Eyes up! Eyes up!
Eyes upon the flame!
See it: it is your soul
Eternal, living
Plain
Now send it
From the blue down here
Up into the green
Up beyond the floor
The sky
Hejana nethai!
Nethana hejai!
The widow,
The warrior,
The Diamond Maid cries!
Just over the next horizon,
Beneath the Sorceror’s dawn
Hejana nethai! I will strike him down!
I shall win the Stone.
And gnaw the bone.
And gnawing
I will know the Poem.
Once spoken.
First made.
Gives life.
Grants names.
Before time.
First born.
A name
is a sword.
I’m not a surgeon,
No surgeon am I,
but I know of one
You might try
says he
Eastward
In the east he
Lives
In the East
his trade he
Plies
And you shall go
There into the sun
Rising as it does
And thinking,
In your new, wise blindness,
That you descend
Into the west
Thinking,
In your ignorance,
That your life’s still this,
your strangest test
Eastward you shall go
But westward
In your mind
Westward ho. Westward ho!
Westward. Go.
The mirror
The shard
Between your eyes
divides you from you
one side from side
And while you see
Your sight may lie…
And with a hand of stealth
A shadow brush and leafy
touch
he heals my wound
with thorns and briars
with Quercetum fumes
and wood-wise timing
He heals me from my fall
He tears me from my pining
So that I might go on
To find the surgeon’s hand
In the westward east
Who’ll heal me
Who’ll heal me and give me sight!
Who’ll heal me
Who’ll heal me and set me right!
For the long road home
To return from where it began
that place of the drear-dead buffalo
to make form against the Sorcerer
and reclaim my due: the Stone
I shall go now soon, say I
I shall go tonight
With me then speak, he says.
With me you must chant.
Hejana hejana hejana nethæ : Hejana hejana hejana nethæ
He is a woodsman : He is a woodsman
A woodsman is he : A woodsman is he
Hejana hejana hejana nethæ: Hejana hejana hejana nethæ
We are both woodsman : We are both woodsman
Two woodsman are we : Two woodsman are we
He is a woodsman : He is a woodsman
A woodsman is he : A woodsman is he
Hejana hejana hejana nethæ: Hejana hejana hejana nethæ
We are both woodsman : We are both woodsman
Two woodsman are we : Two woodsman are we
Thus spoke I ascend
on wings of fine new craft
through briar bush and thorny boughs
ascending
I cry
and laugh
and laugh
and laugh
