Free Native American Songs and Poems by Brian Swann

Introductory Note
    Native American literature is all of a piece, from traditional songs and ceremonies that continue to this day (see, for example, “Havasupai Medicine Song”) to the many poets who are now at the forefront of contemporary American literature. Like other poets, Native American poets write about all sorts of things, but tradition is a strong theme. So, when I invited participation in this venture, I wrote as follows: “I don’t want to prescribe topics, but it might be a good idea to focus on the rich and complex theme of tradition and continuity, however you choose to treat it.” Readers can discover for themselves how the poets interpreted this suggestion.
    While most poets choose to write and publish in English, others compose in their native tongue and translate into English. They do this even though they feel some loss since, as the Navajo Rex Lee Jim wrote me, “writing poems in Navajo is like painting with the tip of a slashing whip.” Ideally, poets writing in a native language would publish their poems in that language for, as Rex Lee Jim also said, “this would send a strong message that American Indian languages are alive and well, and active in the creation of American Indian literature.”
    I have adapted the traditional “song-poems” from the originals identified in the References at the back of the book. They were chosen almost arbitrarily and, since they are only a small sample, there is an unavoidable attenuation of theme and subject. Several of the contemporary poems have been previously published, and the works in which they first appeared are also listed in the References section. Those not listed have never been published before, appearing for the first time in this volume. For more songs and fuller notes, I refer the reader to the two volumes of mine from which I took the traditional songs, Song of the Sky: Versions of Native American Song-Poems (University of Massachusetts Press, 1993) and Wearing the Morning Star: Native American Song-Poems (Random House, 1996). For some more contemporary Native American poetry, see Duane Niatum’s Harper’s Anthology of Twentieth-century Native American Poetry (Harper and Row, 1988).
    I would like to dedicate this book to the memory of Professor Willard Thorp, in whose graduate seminar at Princeton over thirty years ago my interest in American literature was kindled.

Song for Bringing a Child into the World 1
    [SEMINOLE]
    let
the
child
be
born
circling around You day-sun
you wrinkled skin circling around
circling around you daylight
you flecked with gray circling around
circling around you night sun
you wrinkled age circling around
circling around you poor body

Song for the Dying
    [SEMINOLE]
    Come back
Before you get to the king-tree
Come back
Before you get to the peach-tree
Come back
Before you get to the line of fence
Come back
Before you get to the bushes
Come back
Before you get to the fork in the road
Come back
Before you get to the yard
Come back
Before you get to the door
Come back
Before you get to the fire
Come back
Before you get to the middle of the ladder
Come back

He-Hea Katzina Song 2
    [HOPI]
    young corn-plants
in flower
a bean-patch
in blossom
under blue clouds
water will shine
after rain
    Â 
    Look
a throng of yellow flowers
yellow butterflies
chasing
one
another
through the bean-blossoms
blue butterflies
chasing
one
another

Hymn of the Horse
    [NAVAJO]
    His voice so grand
the turquoise horse of Johano-ai 3
Rich blankets and hides
hides of the buck, the beaver, buffalo and mountain lion
woven blankets
are spread
for his feet
Rich tips of flower-blossoms
Johano-ai
feeds him
spring water
snow water
hail water
water from the world’s four quarters
Now
when he walks
grains of shining dust cloud him
when he gallops
the sun’s pollen
coats him in a mist
Now
the herds of Johano-ai
increase for ever

Deer Song 4
    [NAVAJO]
    they start
towards me
to my song
I am
now
a glossy