Medicine wheel
Medicine Wheel
The people we call Cheyenne, Crow, Sioux say instead
the Painted Arrow, the Little Black Eagle, the Brother People,
all three working walking the four ways
of the many spokes of the medicine wheel,
a one-size life-size steering wheel for all,
its living flame larger truth in water,
cloud, flight, sacred smoke,
sundanced day,
moondanced night.
Circle your water rocks on the ground
quartered east, west, north, south
each to their own master,
and follow until your see your reflection
in the mirror of your river
self to self selfless,
at last honest
Walk wheel,
work heal.
– Smith, 3.2.2014
Medicine wheel
I like this one a lot. I realize now after many years that many of these symbols and rituals have a purpose beyond the obvious. They are not just to calm us or center us or to see the world in a certain way. But to actually rely on in our deepest need. I discovered this when my husband was so ill, in his last days. We had both been masons and had worked those rituals so many times that we both knew them from memory. And when he was passing referring to them and working with them was a natural thing to go to. It made me in fact finally understand what the meaning behind those rituals were. That they were not just fanciful or symbolic but symbolic representations of “real” events that occur in out own psyches.
It gave me a profound appreciation for them that I did not have before. So your poem hits the spot for me.. “walk wheel, work heal.” indeed.