Pulitzer Prize winning poet Gary Snyder wrote the poem So Be It with help from an old Native American (Mohawk) prayer. The poem’s message keeps walking through my mind like an unleased dog looking for the right tree.
The words in the poem fill me with a unique awareness. And a connection to another aspect of my physical and non-physical presence.
So Be It opens a door to a new reality, and I feel that reality surround me.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Gratitude to Mother Earth, sailing through night and day-
And to her soil: rich, rare, and sweet.
In our minds so be it!
Gratitude to Plants, the sun-facing light-changing leaf
And fine root hairs, standing still through wind
And rain, their dance is in the flowing spiral grain
In our minds so be it!
Gratitude to Air, bearing the soaring Swift and the silent
Owl at dawn.
Breathe our song
Clear spirit breeze
In our minds so be it!
Gratitude to Wild Beings, our brothers, teaching secrets,
Freedoms and ways; who share with us their milk;
Self-complete, brave and aware
In our minds so be it!
Gratitude to Water: clouds, lakes, rivers, glaciers;
Holding or releasing; streaming through all
Our bodies salty seas.
In our minds so be it!
Gratitude to the Sun: blinding pulsing light through
Trunks of trees,
through mists, warming caves where
Bears and snakes sleep- he who wakes us-
In our minds so be it!
Gratitude to the Great Sky
Who holds billions of stars- and goes yet and beyond that-
Beyond all powers, and thoughts
And yet it is within us-
Grandfather Space
The Mind is his Wife.
So be it
Thanksgiving
H.T. Manogue
www.shortsleves.net
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