Pow Wow Time

Every year
Around Labor Day
Native American Tribes
From all across America
Gather to Pow Wow
And to dance in the
Sacred Circle
At the Shinnecock
Indian Reservation
At Southampton, NY
I try to join them
Every year
This Pow Wow
Is one of the oldest
And largest Native American
Gatherings in the USA
Also for sale
Are handicrafts
Food
Books
Paintings
Music
You name it
Whenever
I hear the drumming
And watch
The colorful dancers
And hear the chanters
And singers performing
I am transported back
Back to another
Time when
Native American Tribes
Were free to live
According to the ways
Of their ancestors
And the singing
And the chanting
And the dancing
Can go on for hours
And for days
And all of it
Is sublime
If only we could
All learn to live
As the Native Americans
Once lived
Free to hunt and fish
To live in teepees
To dance around
Our campfires
And to invoke
The spirits of
The ancient ones
Who know how
To live in harmony
With nature
To be one with
The whole
Natural world
To be like those
Who knew how
To bless the rivers
And the streams
And how to be one
With all of the Animals
In the forests
In the mountains
And in the plains

Yeha-Noha
(Wishes of happiness and prosperity)
AH-UH NAYAH OH-WA OH-WA
SHON-DAY OH-WA OH-WA
SHON-DAY CAN-NON NON NOHA (NOHA)


AH-UH NAYAH OH-WA OH-WA
SHON-DAY OH-WA OH-WA
SHON-DAY YEHA-NOHA (NOHA)

Jhmarkowitz
Philadelphia, Pa. 2011