Free Listen Here by Sandra L. Ballard Page A

poetry, prose, music, and graphic art. As she explained in 1977, “I believe the day will come when we will simply behold a work of art and not be concerned whether it is a poem, a sculpture, a painting or even a machine, like a space rocket. Everything becomes poetry on the highest level of consciousness. And humanity may reach that level—if we don't blow ourselves up first!” Central concerns in her writing include ecology, preservation of Native American and Appalachian cultures, feminism, nuclear energy, cultural diversity, and family.
    Awiakta is the author of a poetry collection and a novella. Her third book, Selu: Seeking the Corn-Mother's Wisdom , combines poetry and prose. Like a Cherokee basket, it weaves together history, autobiography, native legends and traditions, poetry, and themes of environmentalism, science, botany, gender issues, politics, and spirituality. Celebrating the interconnectedness of life, Awiakta advocates that readers relate the wisdoms of the Corn-Mother Selu (pronounced “say-loo”) to similar wisdoms in their own cultures and return to a relationship with earth and with each other that provides more “balance and harmony” in our lives. Her book offers us “seed thoughts” for the twenty-first century.
O THER S OURCES TO E XPLORE
P RIMARY
    Novella: Rising Fawn and the Fire Mystery (1983). Poetry and prose: Selu: Seeking the Corn-Mother's Wisdom (1993), Abiding Appalachia: Where Mountain and Atom Meet (1978). Autobiographical essay: “Sound,” in Bloodroot (1998), ed. Joyce Dyer, 41-51.
S ECONDARY
    Thomas Rain Crowe, “Marilou Awiakta,” Interviewing Appalachia (1994), 215–35. Joyce Dyer, “Marilou Awiakta,” in Bloodroot , 40. Grace Toney Edwards, “Marilou Awiakta: Poet for the People,” in Her Words (2002), ed. Felicia Mitchell, 19–34. Ruth Yu Hsiao, “Awiakta,” The Oxford Companion to Women's Writing In the United States (1995), 90. Parks Lanier, Jr. review of Selu, Appalachian Journal 21:3 (spring 1994), 326–27. Jerold J. Savory, review of Selu, Southern Humanities Review (spring 1995), 198-200. Alexander Vaschenko, review of Selu, North Dakota Quarterly (summer 1995), 229–32. John W. Warren & Adrian McClaren, Tennessee Belles-Lettres (1977), 109–13.

W OMEN D IE L IKE T REES
    from Abiding Appalachia: Where Mountain and Atom Meet (1978, 1995)
    Women die like trees, limb by limb
as strain of bearing shade and fruit
drains sap from branch and stem
and weight of ice with wrench of wind
split the heart, loosen grip of roots
until the tree falls with a sigh—
unheard except by those nearby—
to lie…mossing…mouldering…
to a certain softness under foot,
the matrix of new life and leaves.
No flag is furled, no cadence beats,
no bugle sounds for deaths like these,
as limb by limb, women die like trees.

W HEN E ARTH B ECOMES AN “I T ”
    from Selu: Seeking the Corn-Mother's Wisdom (1993)
    When the people call Earth “Mother,”
they take with love
and with love give back
so that all may live.
    When the people call Earth “it,”
they use her
consume her strength.
Then the people die.
    Already the sun is hot
out of season.
Our Mother's breast
is going dry.
    She is taking all green
into her heart
and will not turn back
until we call her
by her name.

A NOREXIA B ULIMIA S PEAKS FROM THE G RAVE
    from Selu: Seeking the Corn-Mother's Wisdom (1993)
    Young women, listen to me—
I'm talkin’ to you.
Don't come down here before your time.
It's dark and cold.
Nothin’ doin’ down here
but the Grandmothers sayin'
    â€œAnorexia Bulimia!
Tell the young women this for us:
They bound our feet
and our toes busted out—
to travel on, test new waters.
They bound our breasts…
our nipples busted out,
infra-red eyes to take in
what the other two miss.
When they bound our middle
rib ’n hip busted the stays
  took the waist with