Photograph courtesy of Kirstie Watson
As the sun begins to set in the west,
dark eyes greet the skies in a wish for the best —
dreams that may drift into this time and space;
visions that speak of a future someplace.
*
From a mountain high in the midst of life,
she sees herself as a motherly wife;
a daughter, a sister, a friend she is, too.
The Great Spirit knows what she has been through.
*
Whatever the task, however the way,
she prays for the strength to face every day;
for the goodness of grace that goes on giving,
and a love that makes her life worth living.
*
With patience and faith she awaits her fate;
soft heart, open mind, soft touch, open gate.
She lets her soul melt and her spirit soars
where lightning strikes and thunder roars.
*
Uncle Tree's House 
You have a gift for lyrical poetry, Uncle Tree. The melody seems to just flow through you. It’s your superpower.
I’m glad you liked the timing, Bryan. Thank you!
Beautiful poem, I like the phrase:
“the Great Spirit knows what she has been through”,
it makes her even more special that her hurdles are not known,
probably because she did not tell them. And she prays for the strength
all by herself, alone. Nevertheless there is a lot of hope.
Send you my love, hope it might help you grow.
No one else knows every hurdle we clear, or every one that trips us up,
except The Great Spirit. It is not gender specific, as far as we know.
I think all of our prayers are private, even if spoken in a loud manner
before a large crowd of worshipers. I have heard tell that we should
not pray for an easy life. Strength is all we can ask for, and all we can
expect to receive in return for our humble petition.
Black Elk believed that we should ‘go to’ The Great Spirit
as if we were a small, sick child, no matter what it is we wish for.
I can feel your compassion, Mariana, even though
you be 5000 miles away, or so. Luvz, Uncle Tree
Dear poetic grin,
He has a super power because he’s a super hero. Esoterically of course. Thunder and lightening notwithstanding. 🙂
I meant that.
I was just reading about super heroes. They are something to put into one’s psyche through the use of imagination.
Dear UT: You lost me with the word “pray”. A daughter of the Great Spirit “speaks” to the Father with true words. The native is born of and to Spirit and knows itself as nothing else.
great flow of objective.
It is a lovely offering of peace and celebration of life.
and Thank you for reading that prayer I learned from a Native Studies class in the prairies.
blessings.
– galacticDust
http://galacticdust.wordpress.com/
Dear Sher, about those superheroes…
do you have a childhood favorite?
My tie-in refers to Carl Jung’s archetypes. These are like unconscious characters that exist in our psyches a priori. They seem to have the ability to sidetrack our intents, and our priorities. In a sense, they have the power to take possession of our spirits, but in a compensatory way. A way that is helpful to one’s current predicaments. They are not created with one’s imagination, as it is in the case of a personal hero. Jung relates that this idea came to him while meditating on the many various totem rituals carried out by native peoples.
Prayer means several things depending upon which language we use.
(1) a request (2) a question (3) to ask (4) a plea (5) entreat (6) implore
To address God, or a god with adoration, confession, supplication,
and thanksgiving (and to those we’ll add gD’s term: an offering).
In the context of this poem, and in the particular line itself,
I like the way pray sounds. It fit in the best.
And that’s what I call it most of the time. Okay? Luvz! UT
I gladly welcome you, galacticDust,
and thank you for the compliment!
I’m always leery about unconsciously lifting words or ideas from other peoples written works. Therefore my research is limited until a certain piece is finished. After reading the prayer you posted, I felt a little out of my league. It is very well-written, and seems to cover all the bases,
so to speak.
Being a white man (pale face), I definitely wanted to be careful, and not be offensive in any manner. I happen to know of the many wrongs committed in the past by my race, and this is one way for me to make amends with the collective guilt that was passed on down to me willy-nilly.
Thank you for giving this one your blessing! Peace, Uncle Tree
I was looking up hero for the derivitive but my dictionary doesn’t say. Other than Hero was, in Greek Mythology, a priestess of Aphrodite’s.
I guess I meant that to emulate a super hero, which is obviously already in our psyche, since it comes out in all our fictional stories, one needs imagination.
For example, I could emulate Arjuna. Or Mahayanists may emulate Heruka.
Or I may want to emulate Maitreya. It’s my imagination that does it.
Thanks Uncle for the explanations. But “pray” just doesn’t do it for me. I guess it has a different connotation for me. ……I pray thee, m’ lord. A serf to the king of merry ol’ England.
Really. Thank you. I’m glad to hear that the heros really are out there. You are the second to confirm. metoo.
This has been interesting. All this stuff that comes out of one lovely poem. Thanks for having your posts.
You’re welcome, Sher, and thank you for contributing.
We emulate a lot of people growing up, and our heroes keep changing.
Our inherited nature’s come first, and remain with us throughout our
lives no matter how much we try to cover them up by pretending.
Some people are able to accomplish this great act of imitation,
and when they do, we explain it by saying, “It was a learned process.”
Act like you’re someone else for long enough, and pretty soon it will
come to you without you having to consciously make the effort.
We can then say that it came to you as if it were your second nature.
When we played cowboys and Indians as kids, I didn’t mind playing
the brave, but even then I knew I’d never become a chief. I can’t
believe I didn’t become a cowboy eventually. But then again…
I’m not done. Well, I am sorta done, but just for now. Bye!
Hi Uncle Tree, I am sure you get lots of these things but I just wanted to tell you I had nominated you for the Lovely Blog award. 🙂
http://justcassie.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/lovely-post/
wonderful poem, Uncle Tree.
I value the fact that you thought lovely and well of me, Cassie.
Thank you! 🙂 Please, do excuse me for declining the offer.
Thank you very much, Niamh! 🙂
What an amazing picture! I enjoyed how the words meshed with it.
Thank you, good sir! 🙂 Glad you found and liked this one.