This is a Wikimedia Commons Video that is in the Public Domain in the United States. The year is 1894. These are Sioux Indians in full war paint and war costumes doing the traditional Ghost Dance.
GHOST DANCE
the drum
the drum
the buzz and the hum
the beat
the beat
the pound of my feet
the dance
the dance
the haze and the trance
my life
my ways
once bright...falter...fade
©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013
From Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind)
Rituals
rule our lives -
Echoes from past
shape our times -
The silent sounds of drums
pounding in rhythm to
the beat of our hearts
keep us alive.
©Kevin Hodgson, 2013
From Carol (Carol's Corner)
“Ghost Dance”
And God said to
Wovoka
you must tell your people
work hard,
love each other,
live in peace
with your white brother.
And God gave Wovoka
the Ghost Dance
From Carol (Carol's Corner)
“Ghost Dance”
And God said to
Wovoka
you must tell your people
work hard,
love each other,
live in peace
with your white brother.
And God gave Wovoka
the Ghost Dance
dance dance dance
dance for peace
dance for love
dance for unity
dance dance dance
But the white brother
Does not know this dance
Of peace and love and unity
White brother confines
Wovoka’s people
to land
too hot and dry to farm
sends Wovoka's children
away to learn
white brother's rules
Ache in the belly deep
Ache in the heart still deeper.
dance dance dance
dance for peace
dance for love
dance for unity
dance dance dance
Wovoka’s people dance.
Whiteman says stop.
Wovoka’s people dance.
White man is afraid
And there is a massacre.
The chief- Sitting Bull.
153 of Wovoka’s people
most women and children
all killed.
And Wovoka’s people
do not dance
any more.
©Carol Wilcox, 2013
Each day in April, I will feature media from the Wikimedia Commons ("a database of 16,565,065 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute") along with bits and pieces of my brainstorming and both unfinished and finished poems.
I will be using the media to inspire my poetry, but I am going to invite my students to use my daily media picks to inspire any original creation: poems, stories, comics, music, videos, sculptures, drawings...anything!
You are invited to join the fun, too! Leave a link to your creation in the comments and I'll add it to that day's post. I'll add pictures of my students' work throughout the month as well.
The theme of my 2013 National Poetry Month Project is
"Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations."
I will be using the media to inspire my poetry, but I am going to invite my students to use my daily media picks to inspire any original creation: poems, stories, comics, music, videos, sculptures, drawings...anything!
You are invited to join the fun, too! Leave a link to your creation in the comments and I'll add it to that day's post. I'll add pictures of my students' work throughout the month as well.
This is haunting, Mary Lee.
ReplyDeleteCatherine
Rituals
ReplyDeleterule our lives -
Echoes from past
shape our times -
The silent sounds of drums
pounding in rhythm to
the beat of our hearts
keep us alive.
-Kevin
Thanks for writing with me again (and again), Kevin. It's good to have company. (You, too, Carol. Even if you take the day off, I know you've been thinking about these Sioux all day.)
DeleteExcellent. I love this! Your word choice is perfect!
ReplyDeleteVery, very nice, Mary Lee. Love the repetition and the dance, haze, trance choices. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThe first three stanzas of this one came to me really quickly. I wanted to capture the rhythm of the dance. I struggled a LOT with that last stanza.
DeleteI am ever sorrowful to see the past pictures of Native Americans, wondering how they were living those final years, Mary Lee. I did some further research and this short video abppears in several places of Native American history, telling that this "ghost dance" was to bring back the dead in order to help annihilate the white man. It happened after the massacre at Wounded Knee. Thanks for the poem, to the beat!
ReplyDeleteSorrowful is a good word. Sometimes it's just about more than I can stand to think about what our country did (DOES) to the indigenous people of North America. And to the land to which they were so intimately tied.
DeleteAs others have said, that was a haunting video, Mary Lee - I love the way you used the drum beat rhythm to create a ghostly chant. Desolate and doomed.
ReplyDeleteNot quite midnight in Colorado. And so I have written ten days in a row. Not sure again what this is going to post like- it looks like it is going to be weird.
ReplyDelete“Ghost Dance”
And God said to
Wovoka
you must tell your people
work hard,
love each other,
live in peace
with your white brother.
And God gave Wovoka
the Ghost Dance
dance dance dance
dance for peace
dance for love
dance for unity
dance dance dance
But the white brother
Does not know this dance
Of peace and love and unity
White brother confines
Wovoka’s people
to land
too hot and dry to farm
sends Wovoka's children
away to learn
white brother's rules
Ache in the belly deep
Ache in the heart still deeper.
dance dance dance
dance for peace
dance for love
dance for unity
dance dance dance
Wovoka’s people dance.
Whiteman says stop.
Wovoka’s people dance.
White man is afraid
And there is a massacre.
The chief- Sitting Bull.
153 of Wovoka’s people
most women and children
all killed.
And Wovoka’s people
do not dance
any more.
Wow, Carol.
DeleteJust...wow.