Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Poet Nancy Wood

I was talking to a former student a few weeks ago.  Somehow we got onto the subject of my paintings in college.  One was a fabric collage with paint and dream catchers attached.  It was based on one of my favorite poems by Nancy Wood.  It is called The Four Sisters of Everlasting Beauty.

But I have another poem of hers that is my absolute favorite.

Why the Great Spirit Made Hands

The Great Spirit made hands before he made
     eyes or feet, so people could learn to hold
     one another. Hands were useful for touching
     the hard ribs of trees or the soft tongues of flower petals.
     Hands discovered the dry uncertainty of snakes, the
     slipperiness of fish, the mystery of feather. Hands found
Other hands and clasped together to embrace the oncoming world,
     unafraid. Two pairs of hands, burned by fire and cooled
     by water, felt their way along unfamiliar paths and then
     reached out and found they needed one another
     to make a home in the wilderness of their minds.