The river sings….as always
As all rivers….
The ones who nurture it…
It remembers you
In its flowing canticles of joy
It carries the grief of all who suffer for it
You who have bathed in it
Anointed now by its one prayer for you….
It flows for the ones who have no voice….
Their silence eternal…
Healing the broken shadows of man….
For the water protectors of standing rock
25 November 16
A river has no name..the sound it knows of wind
And moonlight..
It’s singing self..
It’s long memory
Bereft of longing..
Full of human invasion
Human crossings
Animal crossings..
Rests in its essential movements..
Shaman know..
It is possible for a river
To sing inside a soul..
It is you..
For berta caceres
From the stronghold
5 March 2016
Secret
You found it in a rusted can of earth and worms
In a hollow birch tree along a foggy river…
In the wintered whisky breath of a Chippewa
Walking toward the oblivion of a white city….
In the eyes of a woman sitting in tall grass….
In the half blindness that allowed you to see further
It gave you words forged in motions not used by common man….
Made of a crows wing it gave you flight
Made of a Bears tooth it gave you a singing in an undiminished voice….
Made of rain it gave you love….
In the windy light snows ….among the rusty dawns of desert
And sorrowed plains….
The secret….
For Jim Harrison
28 March 2016
In the spirit of collaboration and friendship, poet Lance Henson, and I began a blog devoted to his poetry and writing with occasional artworks.
http://www.songsoftwoworlds.com
Our intention was not to illustrate his works or to interpret my artworks but simply to inspire and encourage each other in an ongoing dialogue.
Most of our collaboration has been based on his poems past and current with my artworks added but not done in direct response to his words.
Below are the first results of a new strategy, in which I sent images and requested poems from Lance.
hahnomma*
they move
between the walled boundaries of metaphor
their wings dripping on our windows
the eyes of flowers trembling in a vicinity of returns
we watch
for signs of passing….
*Hahnomma: tsistsistas word for bee.
©2014 Lance Henson
©2014 Barbara Bartlett
beetle
carrying the last piece
of moonlight
toward a secret place
fish wait there
in the weeping water….
©2014 Lance Henson
