Eagle Blessing: the poetry of Judith Ann Henry

Pictures and poem from here.

Eagle Blessing

We are never told ‘when’ the eagle will

touch us nor the way in which the feathers

will enfold all of our lives

We are never told of the softness

and the sounds of the brushing away

of all that is accumulated over the trails

We are never told ‘when’ the smile of an elder

will come to be the reason a day unfolds

near the fire and clasping our ‘ways’

hands to hands as in the sign of friendship

We are never told ‘when’ the sage , shell , and smoke

will bring all of the decades to pass

in the silence of standing ‘still’

and dreaming of the fire and the oaks

and the deer and the elk

and the bear

There is ‘no time’ now

just the soft moccasin step

back and forth

in the snows and near the edges of cedars

‘No time’ in the way the boulders still hold

the leaning trees and leaves of ice

We are never told ‘when’ we will be in life

as fully as when the last aspen of autumn

sings to her cove and the fox appears

again

© Judith Ann Henry

Introducing herself, this poet (Judith Ann Henry) says:

“I live in the Southwestern US and have written poetry of/for/and with this area for the last 25 years. I also have worked with Native communities during these years and am Choctaw for my father's clans and Hungarian for my mother's side.

Blessings from all of the directions, as we say here.”