19 APRIL 2013: MAGGIE'S SELECTION FOR YOUR POETRY PLEASURE

(Coyote Buttes, Utah)

EVERY LAND

The holy land is everywhere. —Black Elk

Watch where the branches of the willows bend
See where the waters of the rivers tend
Graves in the rock, cradles in the sand
Every land is the holy land.

Here was the battle to the bitter end
Here's where the enemy killed the friend
Blood on the rock, tears on the sand
Every land is the holy land.

Willow by the water bending in the wind
Bent till it's broken and it cannot stand
Listen to the word the messengers send
Life from the living rock, death in the sand
Every land is the holy land.

By Ursula K. Le Guin, from Finding My Elegy.