Yanash Kulli *


Excerpted from Constant Fires by Rebecca Hatcher Travis

Yanash Kulli *

alone on the pathway
ancient spirits 
beckon deeper
into the wooded land

grandfather trees
guide the way
bowing in majestic arcs
peace and silence here

deeper still
to the sacred stone circle
to the healing waters
hidden inside the forest

a private stillness here
but for a trickle over the stones
an extraordinary place
do you feel its secret?

up from within the heart of the earth
sparkling cool waters
bubble since time unknown
the spring gently bestows its gift

stones capture the bounty
hold it as tiny creatures
skim across the surface
water flees over the rocks

across the land
among the ancient trees
and whispering wind
into the rivers to the great sea

Grandmother watches
she sings her blessed song
Yanash Kulli
bubbles on

* Buffalo Springs

© Rebecca Hatcher Travis. All rights reserved.

Rebecca Hatcher Travis is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation who carries deep roots in both Indian Territory Oklahoma and Texas. Her first poetry book, Picked Apart the Bones, won the First Book Award from the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas and was published by the Chickasaw Press. 

Her second poetry book, Constant Fires, was released by White Dog Press, a division of Chickasaw Press, in October, 2017. Other published work appears in literary journals, anthologies, online and recently in Tending the FireNative Voices and PortraitsMs. Travis is a member of Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. She lives in the foothills of the Arbuckle Mountains of Oklahoma, near the land her ancestors settled in early Indian Territory days. She continues to write and give poetry presentations.

chickasawpress.com/Authors/Rebecca-Hatcher-Travis

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