Kim Shuck - July 8, Iyengar II & I

From Joy Harjo’s Anthology of Native Nation’s poetry created during her tenure as US Poet Laureate. Ms. Shuck belongs to the Northern California Cherokee diaspora. As we all get excited about summer rain, I started to think about how my sense of this place (Santa Fe, NM) is shaped by my relationship to water. I loved this poet’s take on water and relationship.

WATER AS A SENSE OF PLACE

1.

The water I used to drink spent time Inside a pitched basket

It adopted the internal shape

Took on the taste of pine

And changed me forever.

I remember

Carrying that basket from the pump,

The slow swell of the damp roots,

Sway of a walk

That made carrying it easier.

Sometimes I imagine Step’s Ford,

Both in and out of flood,

Tar Creek,

Spring River

In and out of baskets.

Gram's hands

Long, smooth fingers powerful and exact

Pull and twist

Sorting spokes and splitting weavers

Constructing my idea of water.

…