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shawl poem
for paula

you wove yourself a shawl of words
wrapped it tight about you
lifted your chin
and high-stepped in
to kick off the grand entry

you wove yourself a shawl of names
tsechenako kochinnenako hwame
porivo koshkalaka pocahontas

you wove yourself a shawl of thoughts
gynocratic theosophic cosmic
profane sacred fearsome funny

you pierced the edges with your awl,
your sharp eyesight, your anger,
your fierce love for the thoughtworlds
destroyers could not claim

you leapt right in, a riot of fringe,
a fractal trail of pollen,
a spiral of stars,
your laugh a revolt against drought and boredom

we all fell in behind you

some of us looked both ways first
some of us kept an ancient rhythm
some of us tripped along in shiny black heels
and some sulked backwards in muddy boots
too proud to call you auntie

we are cree sioux cherokee osage breed pinoy
dykes and white girls who just love a drum
we are women who wear the shawl of words
you wove against oblivion

 

 

(c) joanna brooks
reprinted with permission

 

 

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May 18, 2008

 

My friend is dying

not my friend

just

my mother

teacher

guide

inspiration

unlocked

the unknown

undiscovered

unlit

passages

that carried me

here

so many worlds

open.

 

Where to place my foot

is clear

now

she gave me keys

to locks

unseen

or the car

I often can't remember

which,

but her voice

words

remind

from a book

deep in a stack

office floor strewn

numbers

figures

results

those words

carry me

forward now

to where I

wanted to be

before.

 

(c) Leslie Kay

reprinted with permission  

 

 

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First Language

for PGA

 

Tectonic plates crush words together,

syllables pulse in Earth’s crust, pressure

rises in rifts of memory and dream,  

held in Earth’s mind, smoothed by wind, rain.

Burst of language, Her torn skin,

rock-fired words, micaceous glisten,

clay hardening around sound and sense

but hollowed, porous like Earth Herself.

An urn of stardust we emerge,

our voice—Her mind, Her breath, Her image.

 

(c) Mary Churchill

reprinted with permission

 

 

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            Home Calling
        (for Paula Gunn Allen)
 
Lately New Mexico calls to me.
Maybe it's the friends, maybe mesas or
some purity of light that never left
my heart when I waved Vaya con Dios
to Taos.  I still see that young woman
blaze like dawn along canyon walls,
believing warmth will soften any
hardness.  She comes as a stranger now,
her face in mirrors rock, no sun
touching the shadow places
with holy fire.
 
Here in the East I've grown too sad,
eyes clouded with falling towers
on a stolen island –
 
here, after you died in the night, Paula,
I recalled winter's conversation,
you lilting Lately New Mexico calls to me
in 1940's gin & cigarette voice, lung cancer
and chemo further roughening the mix. 
Certainly we spoke about mixings,
two mixed bloods, breeds, yearning
for home, some steady earth balancing
our feet.  And I'll carry forever
 
understandings you gifted to me
from north California beach –
Many mixed bloods, especially
women, feel chronic fatigue.
The "bloods" war against each other
inside our bodies.  My Scots-Laguna
mother taught me that.  We half-
laughed about others failing to notice
our terrible tiredness.  You joked Yeah,
they think we're normal, never suspect
we're about to faint, or worse, we're poets.
 
Lately friends urge me to write happy poems
and odes of joy call to me as New Mexico calls –

 

then, Paula, I remember your death song,
Despite the cancer, despite my house
burning to the ground, I won't give up.
I'll grow stronger.  I'll dance again
at Laguna Pueblo.
 
New Mexico called you all the way, Paula.
In my grief I dance with you, your beloved
trumpet vines in bloom, hummingbirds whirring
deep into orange flowerings of happiness, you
a pain-free girl blossomed with bird energy.
Sparkly eyed daughter of dawn, I hear you –
laughter of last stars, dreams of turquoise,
sage-fragrant limbs flying, shining.
 
Paula, it's over, the split life, the wars inside
and out, the human cruelties, stupidities.
Sister to so many of us, welcome home. 
 
 
© Susan Deer Cloud
6.3.08

Reprinted with permission

 

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“Puff”

My mother’s name was Shimanna
Which mean ‘raincloud’ in our language.
It was a name bestowed upon her
By a wise old elder
Steeped in secret lore.
It was a ceremonial token
Of her entrance to his sacred lodge
The secret gathering place of the tribe.
But it was not an indian name.
The tradition was not Laguna.
The tradition was not Sioux.
The one who named her was gay
And the token he gave bespoke,
Years ahead of its time,
Her admittance to that tribe.

 

(c) Suleiman Allen

 

from http://paulagunnallenonlinememorial.blogspot.com/

 

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SPIDER WOMAN

Here
in your house
amongst the
pretty laced
china cup,
silk scarves
and books lining the shelves,
I take comfort
in you having
slept here,
thought new worlds
here,
breathed fire here,
made your enemies
drink their own blood,
watched the sun rise,
the sound of water
slowly spreading
its fingers in loving
prayer.
Your beautiful
linens, wallpapered
borders hand-drawn,
woven in color and content,
all in one.

I’m not long for
this world,
you said in
a dream
of another time,
space, life, lace,
feathered light and air,
yet there you sat, telling
me it was time.
Then you were gone.

Five hundred miles later,
through old haze,
children crying,
gnarled trunks
and congested airways,
I lay here, looking for you.
A last song of days
looms sweetly
amongst the tangled web
you so carefully spun from
your body,
fingers dancing, spinning,
until time stood still.
I lay here, dreaming your voice,
watching light and air
fall from spinarets and
thousand faceted eyes
of sky blown clouds.

Last night,
frogs sang, calling rain home.
The sky opened up,
dreaming the dark rimmed
edge of night along
a rain basted sky,
clouds seamless,
the only thing missing
was you.


© 2008 Carolyn Dunn

from http://paulagunnallenonlinememorial.blogspot.com/

 

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Long-Distance Gifts

For Paula Gunn Allen


Look into the palms of these hands
my hands were so young and inexperienced,
she took them gently, my teacher, my auntie
professor, my grandmother
the whole way from California
she took my hands into her hands
so she could look into the lines and
marks of my birth, my dreams, my
failures and joys. Into the depths of
what I brought with me through my
mother, what my ancestors, Natives
of the East and Jews from the Mediterranean
wrote on my hands, she read their messages.

All the way from California, Professor Auntie Paula
looked into my hands that she had taken
into her hands the month before, and declared
“Ah, you’re a traditional.”
“You better shake them up, girlfriend!”
“Jewish Indian women are dangerous, you know!”
Across the phone lines our voices travelled, from
sea to shining sea: half laughter and half Indian talk.
Across purple mountains’ majesty: Laughing and culture
women’s mixed blood laughter together with
women’s mixed blood culture together with
women’s mixed blood education together with
women’s love. Mother and daughter. Teacher and student.
Grandmother of Ancient Wit and Tricks, and Granddaughter
learning the Women’s Traditions written in eternity, caught among
college culture, blood politics, phone wires, and the last time we hugged.

Now I am standing under the white pine who has
cradled twenty-foot canes of pink rose blossoms
in my front yard. December’s tornado pushed over
every oak in its path, but she still rises. My hands
are turned to the sky. It is June and
I am weeping at the loss of my treasured teacher
covered in fallen petals and honeysuckle perfume
in the dark I pray for her.

On Friday, with my hands still open I light
Sabbath candles and set a place for Auntie Paula
at our dinner meal. In a vase there are peony blossoms.
To the empty chair, to her spirit,
I tell jokes, then sit on the porch with my drum and sing.


Stephanie A. Sellers

from http://paulagunnallenonlinememorial.blogspot.com/

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If you have a poem written for or about Paula, email it to info at paulagunnallen dot net.