Jerome Rothenberg: from A Seneca Journal: “Midwinter”

[No longer readily available, this section of A Seneca Journal was an early attempt of mine toward a poetry of minimal means – observations & off-the-cuff translations during my first viewing of the Seneca Indian Midwinter ceremonies at the Allegany Seneca reservation in western New York State.  While I’ve intercalated much of A Seneca Journal in later gatherings of my poetry I was never able to provide an alternative place for these poems, though I still find them crucial to the work that was then unfolding for myself & others.  At this later point in my life they present me with a kind of personal dreamtime, a little mysterious in retrospect & in no sense the true Seneca story as such, but vital to me in figuring what it means, both then & now, to be living in a state-of-poetry.]

A man who was a crow was traveling. He didn’t know where he had come from or which way he was going. As he moved along he kept on thinking: “How did I come to be alive? Where did I come from? Where am I going?”

THE HEADS

(1)

big

(2)

bushy

(3)

flying

 

STIRRING THE ASHES

sun bear
moon buffalo

4 SONGS OF THE DAWN SOCIETY

(1)

dawn

(2)

dawn

(3)

dawn

(4)

dawn

THE BEAR ROBE

had no claws

THE BUFFALO ROBE

was headless

 MIDWINTER VISION

 paddles & ashes

EVENTS

fire a rifle

•

touch the sun

 

THE BIG HEADS

husk shoes
husk belt
husk crown
bear snout

THE BIG HEADS SEND A MESSAGE:

HELLO        STAY CLEAN       DONT BE CONFUSED     
DON’T STEP ON THINGS WHEN MOVING   
(signed)   YOUR UNCLES

THE BEAR

his paw up
to the sun

THE BUFFALO

head crowned
with flowers

BUFFALO PUDDING

like the mud
he stamps in

BEAR DANCE

snort
snort
berries

BUFFALO DANCE

sniff
sniff
mush

THE SYMBOL

pine branch
on men's room wall
above
the thermostat

•

pine branch
on mask

THE FACES (1)

blew ashes
thru my hair

THE FACES (2)

whose big mask
cools it down 

THE FACES (3)

with hanging little balls of medicine

THE FACES (4)

had gambled for
the earth

 

FALSE FACES

& phony smiles

THE SIGNATURES (1)

pounders for corn

paddles for soup

THE INSTRUMENTS (2)

water

drums 

horn

rattles

FIRE EVENTS

put out an old fire

•

kindle a new fire

•

          

do a war dance in the name of peace

(interlude)

speaking to Ham
was flicking my ashes into
Leslie Bowen's
soup pail

SIGNATURES (1)

their names on a paddle

SIGNATURES (2)

Emory Jacobs Double Flower

SIGNATURES (3)

18–

96

SYMMETRICAL POEM

shaking the pumpkin

•

shaking the bush

•

shaking the jug

POUNDING THE WOODEN FLOOR   

WITH BROOMSTICKS  

THE WOMEN SANG SIX SONGS

                                                 going walking 

                                      in the middle of the room                                                                                                              a garden    

                                                   I was  alone                                         

                                              we all came back 

                                                    & sat here

MIDWINTER MEMORY

Green Corn

SONG

****************************

*I*love*my************world*

****************************

****************************

*I*love*my*************time*

****************************

****************************

*I*love*my*growing*children*

****************************

****************************

*I*love*my*******old*people*

****************************

****************************

*I*love*my*******ceremonies*

****************************

 

PRAYER EVENT

dancing

OBSOLETE QUESTIONS

who’s got an old dream?

•

who’s got a new dream?

•

who’s got a white dog?

DREAM EVENT (1)

See something in a dream & tell it as a riddle.

Let someone guess the riddle, let him give the object as a gift.

 

DREAM EVENT (2)

Act out a dream.

Let everybody’s brains turn upside down.

THE PUMPKIN
 

has a lake inside it

THE BEADS

seen in my eyes                                                                                                                                                                          with many colors

* dream-guessing riddles

MIDWINTER

when I cough

THE ANCESTORS

Handsome
Lake

•

Happy                                                                                                                                                       Hoolihan

  

CONCLUSION

it was all I could do

•

it was all I had learned

•

it was all that there was

[N.B. A special boxed edition of Seneca Journal: Midwinter, “with objects & collages by the author & Philip Sultz,” was published by Singing Bone Press, St. Louis, in 1975.  The cover of that edition appears above.]