photo: ralph murre
The Healer
by
Ethel Mortenson Davis
You have been yourself at the edge of the Deep Canyon San Juan Pueblo
I was invisible. ~ An Asiatic Eskimo
In
the snowy canyons
you
came to me
as
an eagle
and
whispered
(in
almost audible sounds)
"the
key to the secret
of
healing. . ."
For
my wounds
had
gone beyond wounds
and
had festered
into
deep holes
in
my sides,
and
gangrene had set in,
but,
in a whisper,
you
came and said,
"you
have the keys within you.
You
are the stars
in
the starry night.
You
are the source
at
the mouth of rivers.
You
have the medicine
to
heal
already
in your bones."
And
my wounds became
as
faint as the sound
of
feathers,
as
pale as the ringed moon.
And
the healer
came
to me
in
the face of the wolf.
She
came
and
nodded to me
with
her deep intelligence,
and
her eyes told me,
"your
spirit is strength.
Your
force is as great
as
volcanoes,
for
your goodness prevails
over
the dark;
your
goodness
has
brought you out
of
the deep canyon."
And
again the healer
came
to me.
This
time as a bear,
a
joyous white bear
with
great white paws,
and
she told me,
"you
were invisible,
but
now I see you.
You
have gone
to
the edge of the great canyon
but
have come back
unharmed.
"And
now your laughter
will
become
as
mountainous as thunder,
and
your tears
will
be the tears of glory!"
I
tell you.
I
have put my ear
to
the great Earth
and
have felt your presence.
~
previously published in Poetry Cha Cha and in
I Sleep Between the Moons of New Mexico
