Vision Quest
VISION QUEST
The Sioux chief Brown Eagle taught me self-respect
And I saw my life as an Englishman must have greater purpose,
And that these "savages" were actually my saviors.
The spirit of his tribe drew me; to resist was useless.
The closest spirit was Brown Eagle’s sister :
But Bright Water could marry only a warrior-chief :
To prove worthy to marry into the tribe, and to lead it,
I had to endure long tests and trials of grief.
I studied the ways of Brown Eagle,
Whose many scars were openly displayed,
Showing his warrior-status, as well as reminding all
Of the torture ritual in the tribe and the respect to be paid.
The tribe medicine-man explained what should happen:
I had to undergo a series of ritual tortures and tribulation,
Including an O-Kee-Pa style chest-suspension ceremony,
And its most grueling part, the Sun Vow Initiation.
I was hauled up to the roof of a huge tepee
By buffalo-bone hooks through my pectoral muscles, flowing red:
Excruciating exquisite pain - as my former life was torn out of my chest:
My spirit ascended to the roof and I saw my own body dead.
In a sincere desire to become one with the tribe my spirit left
The tepee on a shamanic journey into another order of realization,
A landscape of magic and mystery - and during this ordeal
Manitou came to me in the form of the White Buffalo - a sacred vision:
Hooves pounding, eyes flaring, He emerged from a vast prairie fire.
And of leadership, duty and responsibility I heard Him speak:
And His huge presence ran with my horse and guided me over the endless
Short-grass plains to Bright Water’s flowing creek.
Attention and energy of my small self was removed from its centre;
The world around expanded correspondingly, enhancing
A changing, fluid, magical, and mysterious realm of the unknown.
Deep-etched imagery, a dream of death-and-life entrancing.
My emotional state transcended any normal boundaries
In sacred time and space - because of the ritual, the ceremony,
The privation, the torture, the longing for communion.
I drank from the flowing creek and returned to the tepee.
Helpless, I was cut down from the tepee roof, rejoined
To the world of flesh and bone; but my fire-baptised
Spirit had new authentic power, and Brown Eagle took my arm:
What is your name, brother? I proudly took the name - Buffalo Eyes.
From the culture of the High Plains Sioux in the USA
Inspired by the movie A MAN CALLED HORSE (1970) starring Richard Harris.
Post Comments
Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth so only provide specific positive comments that indicate what you appreciate about the poem. Negative comments will result your account being banned.
Please
Login
to post a comment
Turn off ads, get more exposure for your poetry, and get more features with a
Premium Membership.
