One Room Vigil

I stick out my thumbs/ and they are candles.

Yannis Ritsos

The End of Dodona II

With the gods overthrown like that, nobody knew which way to
turn.
The sick stayed in bed with their eyes closed.
Their woolen socks rotted away in their shoes, along with two
flowers in a glass.
The cunning ones adjusted quickly. They put on their best clothes
again,
circulated in the marketplace, discussed things, did business. They
undertook
the defense against the invader. They changed the names of streets
and temples: improvised substitutions. Zues and Dione
gave way to Jesus and the Virgin. Theodosius
added the finishing touches--what altars and sanctuaries, and
that huge tree
overwhelmed by votive offerings.
And still
a number of people(including the best) haven't yet come to their
senses. They're waiting once again
for better gods and people. They fume, protest,
dream, hope. We, the few(who, to some degree anyway, use their
heads),
we've given up such luxuries, given up thinking itself.
We plow our small plot of land, look at clouds once in a
while,
calm now, almost secure. One day we found, thrown into a ditch,
that statuette that used to strink metal tools with its wand
and give out prophetic sounds. For a moment that moved us. We
said
we'd set it aside for safekeeping somewhere. But what's the point?
Are we supposed to cling to relics these days?
And what if they dug it up on us? We left it there. Covered it with
two handfuls of dirt.
The dog was in a hurry. It smelled the trees. Large raindrops were
already falling.


--Yannis Ritsos

Four thoughts on September

• In Minnesota it's cold. The weekends are gone too quick, like the daylight hours dissapearing into winter. Inward. A good time to recluse. Meditate.
• I've pulled books off the shelf. I've listened to music. I've listened to stories. I've done all I can.
• Sometimes I wonder about certain people. People I haven't heard from or seen in years. Do they wonder like I do? Have they made a connection somewhere? I've left home before only to come back exiled.
• Delay. Suspend. Hesitate. The piano sounds grand.
  

Birch Coulee

Back in 1995 an event was put on called the gathering of kinship. It was a run from Mankato to Birch Coulee to commerate the 38 Dakota hanged in 1862--the largest mass execution in U.S. history to this day. At Birch Coulee, people waited for the runners and a 4-day wacipi took place.

I was one of the runners to make the 65 mile relay run along the Minnesota River. This weekend is the 11th annual wacipi. This year there's about 30 dancers and 3 drums. Small traditional wacipi with a lot of specials and memorials.