Both poems come from
Simon Ortiz: Woven Stone
The University of Arizona Press, Tucson and London
The Dedication from the book:
For my children,
Raho Nez, Rainy Dawn, and Sara Marie,
and their children--
and their children's children henceforth:
The stories and poems come forth,
and I am only a voice telling them.
They are the true source themselves.
The language of them is the vision
by which we see out and in and all around.
Frequently duties require doing things one doesn't want to do, right now, but they must be done--even if one isn't sure of the goal or why it is obscure.
Evening Beach Walk
I don't really feel like walking
at first
but somehow feel I must
since I have come
this far
to this edge,
and so I walk.
The sun is going downwards
or rather one point changes to another,
and I know I am confronting
another horizon.
A dog comes sniffing at my knees
and I hold my hand to him,
and he sniffs, wags his tail
and trots away to join a young couple,
his friends, who smile as we meet.
I look many times as the sun sets
and I don't know why I can't see
clearly the horizon that I've imagined.
Maybe it's the clouds, the smog,
maybe it's the changing.
It's a duty with me,
I know, to find the horizon
and I keep on walking on the ocean's edge,
looking for things in the dim light.
-- Simon J. Ortiz --
This is the poem that comes directly after "Evening Beach Walk." I wonder if there's a connection here.
A Patience Poem for the Child
That is Me
Be patient child,
be patient, quiet.
The rivers run into the center
of the earth
and around
revolve all things
and flow
into the center.
Be patient, child,
quiet.
-- Simon J. Ortiz --
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