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Women Against Racism records, 1982-1984
""El Laberinto"" Volume X, No. 2 Page 8
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Ceremony for Completing a Poetry Reading This is a give-away poem You have come gathering You have made a circle with me of the places where I have wondered I want to give you the first daffodil opening from the earth I have sown to give you warm loaves of bread baked in soft mounds like breasts In this circle I pass each of you a shell from our mother sea Hold it in your spirit & hear the voices she will tell you I have wrapped your faces around me, a warm robe Let me give you ribbonwork leggings, dresses sewn with elk teeth moccasins woven with red & blue porcupine quills I give you blankets woven of flowers & roots Come closer I have more to give this basket is very large I have stitched it of your kind words Here is a necklace of feathers and bones a sacred meal of choke cherries Take this mask of bark which keeps out the evil ones This basket is only the beginning There is something in my arms for all of you I offer you this memory of sunrise seen through ice crystals Here, an afternoon of looking into the sea from high rocks Here, a red-tailed hawk circling over our heads One of its feathers drops for your hair May I give you this round stone which holds an ancient spirit This stone will soothe you Within this basket is something you have been looking for all your life Come take it Take as much as you want I give you seeds of a new way I give you the moon shining on a fire of singing women I give you the sound of our feet dancing I give you the sound of our thoughts flying I give you the sound of peace moving into our faces & sitting down Come this is a give away poem I cannot go home until you have taken everything and the basket which held it When my hands are empty I will be full -Chrystos
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Ceremony for Completing a Poetry Reading This is a give-away poem You have come gathering You have made a circle with me of the places where I have wondered I want to give you the first daffodil opening from the earth I have sown to give you warm loaves of bread baked in soft mounds like breasts In this circle I pass each of you a shell from our mother sea Hold it in your spirit & hear the voices she will tell you I have wrapped your faces around me, a warm robe Let me give you ribbonwork leggings, dresses sewn with elk teeth moccasins woven with red & blue porcupine quills I give you blankets woven of flowers & roots Come closer I have more to give this basket is very large I have stitched it of your kind words Here is a necklace of feathers and bones a sacred meal of choke cherries Take this mask of bark which keeps out the evil ones This basket is only the beginning There is something in my arms for all of you I offer you this memory of sunrise seen through ice crystals Here, an afternoon of looking into the sea from high rocks Here, a red-tailed hawk circling over our heads One of its feathers drops for your hair May I give you this round stone which holds an ancient spirit This stone will soothe you Within this basket is something you have been looking for all your life Come take it Take as much as you want I give you seeds of a new way I give you the moon shining on a fire of singing women I give you the sound of our feet dancing I give you the sound of our thoughts flying I give you the sound of peace moving into our faces & sitting down Come this is a give away poem I cannot go home until you have taken everything and the basket which held it When my hands are empty I will be full -Chrystos
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