Excerpt from Meditations with the Lakota

Note: John Lame Deer, a Lakota elder, once had this to say about symbols. I like it because it suggests a good way to deal with poetry, one that works for all of us and not just Native Americans.

No title. Here it is:

We Indians live in a world of symbols and images 
where the spiritual and the commonplace are one.
to the white man symbols are just words,
spoken or written in a book.
To us they are a part of nature,
part of ourselves -- 
the earth, the sun, the wind and the rain,
stones, trees, animals, even little insects
like ants and grasshoppers.
We try to understand them
not with the head
but with the heart,
and we need no more than a hint
to give us the meaning.

Steinmetz, Paul B., S.J. Meditations with the Lakota: Prayers, Songs, and Stories of Healing and Harmony. Rochester, Vermont: Bear & Co., 2001. 18.