Over the next several months I will be posting some of my poetry every Wednesday. Why? I feel like too many words are going out all around us with too little credence given them. It is difficult to hear through too many words, which often excuses us from doing. Sometimes a song or a poem can change the way we hear things or even change a life. For now, I’ll keep my songs hidden and just share poetry. My poetry covers a wide variety of topics, all I feel are relevant to Emergence and the churches in America. My first poem, The Haunting, is dedicated to my brother Richard Twiss who was just beginning to find his post/pre-colonial voice. Richard had many more things to say before leaving us. That pause, will never be completed…In his memory I also begin this tribute with his favorite poet, Hafiz. For Richard:
God
and I have become
like two giant fat people living
in a tiny
boat.We
keep bumping into
each other
and laughing(Shams-ud-din Muhammad Hafiz)
The Haunting
© 2003 Randy Woodley
wasn’t it 1492 when Columbus sailed the azure ocean?
salty water lapping shores separating neighbors
come into our house—there is no honor in dispelling a neighbor
but unruly neighbors are a curse and bad religion is a plague
came the call from every corner with mangled crosses and dubious preachers
came, you came to our land…our lives…our homes
“virgin land,” mother earth milk & honey flowing from her breast—you saw fences
“virgin trees,” Sequoia mammoths decorating a vast green park—you saw timber
“virgin nations,” going…gone—left from a greater civilization—but you did not see me
land…trees…”ours” you say—and the nations just a blight on your conscience
cut the land, cut the trees, cut the nations…
this is the clarion Christian call
rape the land, rape the trees, rape the nations…
ignore my blood and tears when you pray
i am a red Indian, a raped virgin—you make me a “noble whore”
thrown into a dark corner with the trees, and the land, and the “lost” civilizations
my spiritual reservations are the places you relegate to me
compartments fit for non-human species—churches made from acreage and board feet
good Indian—come to church, makum’ god happy
good Indian get job, makum’ government happy
good Indian keep quiet…subdued…silent
quietly turn your vile abuse, your bitter loss onto yourself and other bad Indians
then…you makum’ everyone of us Americans very happy
cause we got your land
and we got your trees
and never forget…never, ever forget—that we got god—so we got your souls!
where do the souls of dead Indians go?
where does one go after rape and torture, robbery and slavery, disease and genocide?
perhaps we join the land and the trees
lingering with the spirit of Jesus on earth to curse savage Christian civilizations
we die early and we die often…but we die slow
and, we die knowing a secret that you don’t even care to know
that your land will not rest
and your trees will make only crooked crosses
and your children will breathe their last breathes in despair
…groping for an identity that you could not steal for them
…grasping for an honor that always alluded them
…clinching for a God…and land…and trees…and nations that were never theirs
and herein is the lesson… gifts can’t be stolen
and love takes flight where control makes its nest
and Jesus? O, Jesus…
You crucify Him anew with every sacrifice that we make to accommodate you
wasn’t it 1491 when there was no haunting?