In recognition of Native American Heritage Month (November), here is a poem about something integral to Native America that is often missing from the hurried, competitive, acquisitive lifestyles of so many of the rest of us: living in harmony with nature.
the cradle
in his early months he lived much like a turtle in its shell though his was made of oak and cloth with playthings dangling here and there that he could touch and move he spent much time in nature up against a tree suspended from a branch or on his mother’s back observing all the colors and the shapes and listening to the novel sounds around him sometimes he was visited by birds exploring a new cooing sound but mostly he just sat and watched the drama that took place around him and the animals that never seemed to mind his movements or his sounds and always answered with their own as if to say we too can play now sitting motionless now in a gentle breeze that tossed his cradle to and fro he would converse with birds and dogs and squirrels groundhogs too deeply in the poetry of life immersed
From Into the Wind © 2021 Charles Schlee
For more information about Native America, visit https://www.nativehope.org .