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fwo poems by J. Kirk Brown
Freedom shining on
dew at first light
its opening rose
on whispered admiration
misting crystal sheets
as time
soaring white to blue
and yellow famed it
lay I down
field-bound in daisies
dying as they grew
my dreams
leaped up
glancing slightly
sunlight joined
chance daliance
done desending
diverse senses
crying out
its you
Old eyes
silently charting
the waves
as they rise
from the concrete
each dawn.
quietly watching
the child
as she plays
here each noon
at the swings
solemnly falling
past hands
as they lay
wrinkled up
in the dark.
i grope, but cannot reach
a bastard self that begs
for communal life with
me.
if i could focus
inward eyes,
i could live dreams that
only owlish nights
can see,
and only singing selves
can feel,
when we fly together on
ferris wheels,
we will be our certain
sky;
and sail with skylarks
to dreams beyond
jur earthly grasp.
My words freeze time,
ink frozen lines
eternal as the day
will end and sure
as the moon
in a thunderhead sky
solid as the sun
in a streetlight pond;
I know tomorrow
only by its name.
by Scott McLaughlin
Do you believe in magic?
Book neview by Lucy Kerchberger
Enter The Magic World by William Brandon.
This collection of American Indian s ngs
and poems beats with beautiful naturalism. All
too frequently native lyrics and poetry have
been ritually tucked away in dusty ethnological
journals, their literary value being entirely
ignored. Fortunately Wil'iam Brandon, also
author of The American Heritage Book of
Indians, has brought this assemblage to light.
Besides being a great addition to th world's
literature, it provides a .neasurabie insight into
the ethos of the American Indian. What better
way can one begin to understand the soul of a
people than through their songs, myths, and
poems.
Just as there is significant variation among
the American Indian peoples, both racially and
culturally, stylistically this is also the case. The
Magic World ranges from the light, melodic
legend by the Cochiti, "Bird and Toad Play Hide
and Seek," to the melancholy supposition of
the Tlingit, "Mourning Song for a Brother
Drowned at Sea."
Whether it is straight-forward or symbolic.
The Magic World is permeated with an essential
PAGE 8
truth which makes the works believable.
Maybe it is the way in which the truth is
reached and the form in which it is revealed
that makes this literature differ from, for
example. Western literature. Anyway, the pure
clarity of the basic messages is refreshing.
Nature serves as the primary thread of
continuity through the book. Graceful
metaphors and imagery of earth and sky and
living beings flower the pages. Whether the
reader is in the confines of a steel, concrete ,
and glass edifice or a city transit line, he cannot
help but experience the heady breath of all
creation.
As so often is true, the poems and myths
sing of music and the songs dance as poems.
Perhaps the fact that these aesthetic elements
were so vitally parts of most American Indian
cultures makes this happen. One good example
of the product of this natural fusion is found in
the statement of Dan Yazzie, a Navajo medicine
man, "Concerning Wisdom, A Fragment"
perform the Beauty Way.
I am over eighty years old.
What more can be said except The Magic
World flows. . .
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
f Jo fits?
CFlJ PiixJ? zQ
by Howard Rosenberg
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1971