Day 23- Native American Poetry

Today honestly was a slow day, mainly because my supervisor was swamped with meetings and could not really sit down and assign me tasks for the day.

However, I did meet with two veterans I have met previously and my supervisor to discuss what Mike, EPMHMR's military liaison needs for training peer-to- peer reviews. We also discussed what Mike would be presenting at the Mental Health Conference that will be held next week.

So I since was not joking about not doing much besides organizing files and stuff, I would like to share a poem with you all from a book that I have just finished reading. The book is called "We Became As Mountains: Poems of the Pueblo Conquest" by Nancy Wood. And the last poem of the book is called "Full Circle." It goes as the following:


Full Circle

Some say the world is dying,
but I don’t believe them. Indigenous
There is always something good to see.

My ancestors would not have given up.
I, in my modern house, cannot give up either.
To give up is to die.

My voice goes on
and I fight like a warrior for
creatures who cannot speak.
The voices of turtles and falcons are within me,
and I must put myself in Brother Bear’s skin.

The end is the beginning. The full circle
of my life is nothing more
than one footstep going on.

I loved the fact that the author chose to place this poem at the very end because it leaves the audience with some sort of hope that somehow things will be okay for the Native Americans. Somehow, they will be able to take that step forward and live one more day, regardless of their tragic history. As Wood mentions, "To give up is to die" and so the Native Americans must keep walking ahead for the real tragedy is "when a memory dies, the purpose of a people is obliterated." In order for their presence to be remembered, they must take that footstep to fulfill the circle of life.