University of Texas 2007
daydreaming w/ Bob Arnold
New with small book label fully signed by Kent Johnson on the opening flyleaf
Inventory
This is my cap,
this is my coat,
here's my shaving gear
in a linen sack.
A can of rations:
my plate, my cup,
I've scratched my name
in the tin.
Scratched it with this
valuable nail
which I hide
from avid eyes.
In the foodsack is
a pair of wool socks
and something else that I
show to no one,
it all serves as a pillow
for my head at night.
The cardboard here lies
between me and the earth.
The lead in my pencil
I love most of all:
in the daytime it writes down
the verses I make at night.
This is my notebook,
this is my tarpaulin,
this is my towel,
this is my thread.
____________________
Gunter Eich
Valuable Nail
translated from the German by
Stuart Friebert, David Young & David Walker
Field, 1981
Sunapee Mandala
Leave your shadow here
on the long memory of rock
that you may number among
the friends of the planet:
we are one
in summer woods
overflowing with wings,
in the fires kindled by orange lily
struck against fern flint,
one with the music of wind
played on icy birch bones,
and the promise pollen spells
across the watery mirrors
of our future.
_______________________
Marie Harris
Desire Lines
Hobblebush Books
2019
The Delight Song of Tsoai-Talee
I am a feather on the bright sky.
I am the blue horse that runs in the plain.
I am the fish that rolls, shining, in the water.
I am the shadow that follows a child.
I am the evening light, the luster of meadows.
I am an eagle playing with the wind.
I am a cluster of bright beads.
I am the farthest star.
I am the cold of dawn.
I am the roaring of the rain.
I am the glitter on the crust of the snow.
I am the long track of the moon in a lake.
I am a flame of four colors.
I am a deer standing away in the dusk.
I am a field of sumac and the pomme blanche.
I am an angle of geese in the winter sky.
I am the hunger of a young wolf.
I am the whole dream of these things.
You see, I am alive, I am alive
I stand in good relation to the earth.
I stand in good relation to the gods.
I stand in good relation to all that is beautiful.
I stand in good relation to the daughter of Tsen-tainte.
You see, I am alive, I am alive.
___________________________
N. Scott Momaday
from When the Light of the
World Was Subdued, Our Songs
Came Through, edited by Joy Harjo
Norton, 2020