2sDays Poems: Wolfies Under the Supermoon

Tags

2sDay Poems, Alaskan Native writers, Gooch, La Lupe, Latino poet, Maraca: New & Selected Poems, Mary TallMountain, The Last Wolf, The Light on the Tent Wall, Tlingit art, Victor Hernandez Cruz, wolf poems

The Tlingit word for ‘wolf’ is gooch, and with the recent supermoon plastering the weekend skies, I thought it would be fun to share two of my favorite wolf poems, both from kick-a$$ poets (like top of the top ten of the poetry gods, no lie).

The first is from fellow Alaskan Native Mary TallMountain.

THE LAST WOLF

The last wolf hurried toward me
through the ruined city
and I heard his baying echoes
down the steep smashed warrens
of Montgomery Street and past
the ruby-crowned highrises
left standing
their lighted elevators useless

Passing the flicking red and green
of traffic signals
baying his way eastward
in the mystery of his wild…

FULL TEXT HERE

from The Light on the Tent Wall

 

The second is from Latino poet Victor Hernández Cruz.

LA LUPE

Her voice comes out of her knees,

her fingernails are full of sound,

Birds are in her lungs,

which gives her gargantuan flight,

A florescence through ether waves,

like ancestral Morse codes.

 

Oriente province de Cuba

her first steps.

At nineteen she dismantled retinas—

roosters blew themselves inside out,

When she swayed by cathedrals they folded,

guayacan trees fell to their knees,

Mountains bowed with the contents

for ajiaco.

She filled the horizon with kerchiefs,

gypsies danced behind her,

Her bracelets were snakes,

forces were captured in her…

FULL TEXT HERE

from Maraca: New & Selected Poems

 

And for those Native American art lovers, enjoy oodles of Tlingit (and other tribal) art over at AlaskaNativeArtists.com, including this supercool carved gooch helmet: