[Stylist] a poem for Native American Heritage month
Ann Chiappetta
anniecms64 at gmail.com
Mon Nov 14 20:13:02 UTC 2022
Navajo Mountain
Norla Chee
If you close your eyes
and take a deep breath
you can hear the green sage sing
The gray stones beneath you
feel young again
The breeze watches
it all with her Mona Lisa smile
Naatsisáán takes it all in
The thunder of a hundred hooves,
whoops and hollers of the crowd,
the intensity of the riders
as in the day of wild warriors
on the warpath.
There are chicken pulls, childrens foot races,
Navajo cake, kneel-down bread, drum songs
Ké shakes the roots of the mountain,
which gives the people her blessing
as does Sun God
with gentle warm breath.
The story I heard
was that the people
returned from Hwéeldi
and found strangers in their home.
Ashiih Litso just a boy, risked everything
on one horse race
and was blessed by the Holy People.
Another story goes that the mountain protected the people,
keeping soldiers away
and they never had to make the Long Walk.
Whichever story you live by,
the mountain remembers.
Eehaniih celebrates her,
head of the earth.
Copyright © 2022 by Norla Chee. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on
November 14, 2022, by the Academy of American Poets.
Norla Chee
Norla Chee is a Navajo and Oneida poet. The author of Cedar Smoke on Abalone
Mountain (UCLA American Indian Studies Center, 2001), she lives in White
Rock, New Mexico.
Ann M. Chiappetta, M.S.
Making Meaningful ConnectionsThrough Media
914.393.6605 USA
Anniecms64 at gmail.com <mailto:Anniecms64 at gmail.com>
All things Annie: www.annchiappetta.com <http://www.annchiappetta.com>
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