NATIVE AMERICAN WOMAN SPEAKS:
—for Gene Ruggles
Sitting
like Buddha, Mary
TallMountain was the guardian,
a black triangle on a vast white plain.
Both solid, and non-solid, her hair, a living bridge
uniting head to shoulder, composed entirely of triangles.
The mantra interspliced dream images of her name. She said life
is a mountain. Sit tall, become the mountain. You are always going
to climb your own highest summit. She demonstrated, by sitting
cross-legged, the importance of strong foundations.
Standing, she could've been taller,
but that wasn't the
lesson.
SF National Poetry Week
