Issue 14, December 1997
Dancing Bear - Two Poems

Hear my voices
Hear my dream song
touch a worn story bead
remember the words spoken 
over ashes of sweetgrass and cedar
within a circle of rocks fires dance
this is the medicine of wind in leaves
this is the medicine of water over stone
Hear this song
of water underneath our feet
it is everything forgotten
the lost ceremony we cry for
this is a bird of clouds gracing the sky father
smoke trailing across the moon
firefly words in night grass
this is the prayer I mouthed when I was young
this is the prayer my old lips still move to

You and I have been friends
for so long

We attended our children’s
and grandchildren’s weddings

seen so many changes
At 79

driving down this avenue
I want to say I love you

Shall we shed this steel skin
dance on the roots of this Magnolia

climb its limbs
till we touch heaven