POETS Main Page INDEX of Poets INDEX of Titles & First Lines "The Back page"

Allen

 

Paula Gunn Allen
1939-2008
(Laguna & Sioux)

"Hoop Dance"

 

It's hard to enter
circling clockwise and counter
clockwise moving no
regard for time, metrics
irrelevant to this dance
where pain is the prime number
and soft stepping feet
praise water from the skies.

I have seen the face of triumph
the winding line stare down all moves
to desecration: guts not cut from arms,
fingers joined to minds,
together Sky and Water
one dancing           one
circle of a thousand turning lines
beyond the march of gears –
out of time,           out of
time, out
of time.

 

© Paula Gunn Allen
Buy Paula Gunn Allen's poetry


POETS Main Page INDEX of Poets INDEX of Titles & First Lines "The Back page"