Shaman
by Daniel Kolos
gesture - sound
her hands move
her apprentice drums
the fire crackles
the smell of sweet-grass everywhere
she takes a puff from a burning cigar
throws some cedar branches on the fire
an unexpected "Whoop!"
comes tumbling out of her deepest being
a full-chested war-cry
my five senses duly retreat
and rise to higher sensitivities
I am not here to battle
this Warrior-Woman
the drum-sound changes
her ankle-bells begin to chime
a rhythm that coaxes out from hiding
another way of perception
she dances between us and the fire
a diminutive figure
crackling with life among the flames
her scrawny body combines
the energy of the earth
upon which her feet drum
the winds
whose essence her hands gather
and the fire behind her
that her head seems to control
so that her rack of frizzy hair seems aflame
she kicks up her feet
sand and dust shower down upon us
like so many stars
she brings down her arms
and the fire's heat slams into our faces
we each know without thinking
without saying
that we are the water fluidly moving
and she
in the center
the Fifth Element
the will that pumps purpose into the
other four
as she begins to turn
it seems as if we and the fire
are spinning around her
we fall and rise
we want the earth to stop spinning
so we begin to spin ourselves
we spin a rhythm through which
a day becomes but a drum-beat
a night an off-beat
in the blink of an eye
perceptions are made
or lost
and each of us feels
as if we are strands of her hair
she becomes the sun
we the planets
the fire burns hot
and so does my heart
my arms shoot up
they release anger
my feet stomp into the earth
anchoring my soul
i rise out of my own wild
self-absorbed abandon
and open my eyes
every loose and relaxed part of my body
flops up and down
we are naked
and in our nakedness
we find a common truth
the shaman had raised us out of our individual selves
we begin to dance as one
when we next look up
she is gone
the old woman
who turned herself into a youthful girl
rebirthed us
and mothered us through our self-realization,
disappeared into the nearby forest
either to die or to re-gather her energy
May, 2001
First read as part of a featured poetry readings, The
Crone Poems, at the Idler Pub Reading Series, Toronto, September 23, 2001 and
was published in Daniel Kolos’ first collection of poetry, Slipped Out, (Pendas Productions,
London, 2003) as well as performed by Daniel Kolos and recorded by John Magyar
(Psychospace Sounds, Toronto) on a CD, Daniel
Kolos Reads His Own Poetry)
Shaman was also chosen by the Sisterhood of the Emerald
Fire, Temple of Sakkara, as the theme poem for their April, 2005 weekend
meeting in Allegan, Michigan
This poem also appears as part of the Twelfth Key, a Pendas Poets Anthology, published on-line by My Town at
http://www.mytown.ca/ev.php?URL_ID=100998&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=203&reload=1100223356
http://www.mytown.ca/ev.php?URL_ID=101015&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201&reload=1100224395
or start at http://mytown.ca/twelfth/ posted November 10, 2004
copyright 2002
by Daniel M. Kolos
reproduction,
reading or
publication in any medium
requires the author's permission
|
The first autographed poetry collection is now available in book or CD format! Click here to find out how you can order your own personal copy. |