Passing the memories down… KEYWORDS: native american poem, native american nature poem native american poetry native poetry Martha Moongazer Beard
Faintly in the morning hush,
I smell the scent of sweet sage brush,
Envoking memories of my mountain home
As on this flat land I now roam.I remember well the smell of pine
From the home I was forced to leave behind,
My feet now walk on barren dirt
Where scorpions sting and cactus spine hurt.
Yet I recall the soft, damp grass
From that long ago place of the past,
Birds and flowers were everywhere,
And my people lived without a care.
I gaze on mesa long and dark
I work the land, yet it remains stark.
I have canyons not mountains in this new place–
They wanted to distroy us without a trace.
White men lied and forced us here,
Leaving behind the bear and deer,
But they did not kill the Indian race,
The wind still blows on my red face.
I was relocated to the west,
But I do not give up, I try my best.
Passing memories down so the young will learn,
Praying one day our Nations will return.
Martha Moongazer Beard
December 31, 2004