Totems Poems - Poems about Totems

The river and the almond tree are sacred totems for me. They occupy primal ground in my mind where the stuff of who I am links the esoteric to my history. I keep them close, hidden from the scoff of everyday me, dread warden of fact and skeptical of what strays from the reach of materiality. I come out at night to bathe in...

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Lakeside, among the rustling reeds, there is a whir and stir, whisks of motion swish and ruffle. Yellow Jackets, dragonflies, and Yellow Tailed fritillaries vie for space in the sultry air. The water though is still, a mirror turned over for the sun to peer through. In the glassy water a day-dreaming vision surfaces, I see the animals; they are neither in the water...

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Lakeside, among the dripping weeds, Yellow Jackets, Dragonflies, gnats, and Yellow Tailed fritillaries vie for air space. The water is still, a mirror turned over to watch what flies beneath it. It has a surface tension that echo’s from an in-between place, close but unreachable. It is there that I see the animals. They are neither in the water or out of it. They are peering into...

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I almost see the totem animals. an almost place, placed before my eyes, this morn-flushed day. The red sky that charged the horizon is shading to flamingo pink. The storm must have lost its wings. The light is tattered, but it plumes now with the floss of broken clouds. Lakeside, among the dripping weeds, Yellow Jackets, Dragonflies, and Yellow Tailed fritillaries vie for air...

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The Totem © The totem speaks of the tribe’s history, lore, deeds of courage Animals, fish and gods carved in reverence, from a fallen tree hundreds of years old, living wood, with a face, a fish, a bear, a bird marching down it’s trunk, a seemingly random sprinkle of obelisks in a circle, tells of incredible faith...

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In fevered mornings, the salted sky has halfway birthed her fiery sun. All day the houses will guard the sea with totems of windsocks and briny shells: a foamy shoreline where bones of dreams and shards of thoughts are laid to rest, reclaiming the child you were, spread-eagled, creature to God, God to creature....

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Totems of What If Can we ever escape that which we create but often choose to ignore Like the mismatched rocks of a cairn random choice is not an option complimenting shapes and sizes make up one's balance one's direction one's harmony Yet some Aspiring high rise urban dwellers live a rock steel and glass totem life stacking mismatched building blocks like mutated animal lineage not of the fittest unknowingly...

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As the sky turned dark The elders knew a storm was coming The totems in the graveyard were swaying To the song the wind was humming The old men could remember well The storms of long ago And they would tell the stories So...

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Totems in the sky, they deaden the night Barricading the stars, no sign of light Clouds of grey, quickly bringing dismay A message from above; will this be the day I pray for the sun to chase them away I beg them to leave, but they chose to stay Moving sluggishly, so slowly, they terrify me I’ve pondered their gloom, the pure...

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The honored dead lie in their graves Silent beneath the sky Storm clouds billow like threatening waves The wind begins to sigh Darkness falls o’er this resting place Slowly the clouds descend Totems stand with majestic grace With strength that storms won’t bend The Totems tell of noble lives Of those who now are dead They speak with pride and not with cries No tears need...

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The story goes; there was a sacrifice in the graveyard hundreds of years ago. A man had done wrong and tarnished the name of his own. The woman would take no bribe. So together they died. Walking through the grave yard in the dead of the night. Stepping on the corpse of the dead no longer...

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