White Deerskin Dance Hupa September 1973

Closing my eyes
  I still can see
    that line of men
      each holding his long pole
          with deerskin draped
              and antlered head
                    held high

Now swaying slowly
  side to side
            the poles
      in steady rythm
                    move as if                           spellbound
          the deer themselves
              were dancing

Were they in trance
  or was it I
            entranced by that
                     slow steady line
        the pale deer dancing overhead
            their eyes dark
                              in the twilight? Today it seems
  a dream I had
    long ago when
      the world was young
        and coming into view
            for the first time

The Hupa say
  without the dance
    the earth will tilt
        unbalance
        and the ocean
          overrun the land

Is that what's happening
        now that we
              have failed to take
                                our places
                            in the line
                        forgotten how
                        to circle round?

The whole tribe comes together
          every fall to host
      the dance and dancing
                  bring the world
              back where it belongs
I worry there's
  too few of them
    too many of us others
      who have lost
        the knowledge
          lost the way of dancing

But while the vision
     of the sacred
                      deerskin dance lives on
           this world
          the world we love
               is still not lost