(The Yabetchi, sacred sand painting of the Navaho, is copied each year by old Klah, the rug weaver; then the sands are scattered and the design held in memory until next year.) Over—under—patient—slow, Steadily my fingers go Weaving on the loom of years Pictures of the long ago. Eye and ear, and heart and hand; Warp and woof and colored strand; Across the chasm of the years Memory's endless web is spanned. Red is passion fires of youth; Black, the floods to change forsooth; Amber, sands of blank despair To the green of eternal truth. Paler green is life reborn In the rose mirage of morn. Grey is mystery of death Mated with life in yellow corn. White is yawning north sky deep; Azure is southern Heavens steep; Purple-blue is wings of night Over rich brown earth asleep. Memory dies like a battle song. Echoing the threads and hills among Throbs the ghostly battle drum Calling the moccasined throng. Over—under—weary—old. Scatter the sands. The fire is cold. Tie the threads and break the loom. White men wait with yellow gold. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DAWN by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON TO THE MEMORY OF INEZ MILHOLLAND by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON CARELESS CONTENT by JOHN BYROM A CHRISTMAS GHOST-STORY; CHRISTMAS-EVE 1899 by THOMAS HARDY LONG LIVE LIFE by JACQUES BARON PARODY OF A SHROPSHIRE LAD by HENRY MAXIMILIAN BEERBOHM THE LOVE SONNETS OF PROTEUS: 66. THE THREE AGES OF WOMAN: 1 by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT |