Donald Traxler's Poetry: 09/16/18

Sunday, September 16, 2018

itsula nvlise ulinawi amayeli (translation)

itsula nvlise ulinawi amayeli didla
ulasitsaneta elohi nidvlenvda.
agvyi, itsula alenidohise inv
uyvtlv hawina,
ani-senika navnige.
oniyagesdodi, tiyohali tsilv,
itsula ayasdise nvdane.

ᎢᏧᎳ ᏅᎵᏎ ᎤᎵᎾᏫ ᎠᎹᏰᎵ ᏗᏜ
ᎤᎳᏏᏣᏁᏔ ᎡᎶᎯ ᏂᏛᎴᏅᏓ.
ᎠᎬᏱ, ᎢᏧᎳ ᎠᎴᏂᏙᎯᏎ ᎢᏅ
ᎤᏴᏢ ᎭᏫᎾ,
ᎠᏂ-ᏎᏂᎧ ᎾᎥᏂᎨ.
ᎣᏂᏯᎨᏍᏙᏗ, ᏘᏲᎭᎵ ᏥᎸ,
ᎢᏧᎳ ᎠᏯᏍᏗᏎ ᏅᏓᏁ.

We came to Turtle Island
from the Darkening Land.
First we lived far in the north,
near the Seneca.
Later, like Lizard,
we sought the sun.

itsula nvlise ulinawi amayeli / ᎢᏧᎳ ᏅᎵᏎ ᎤᎵᎾᏫ ᎠᎹᏰᎵ

The Bench

Sitting on that bench,
I felt at home,
at peace.
I felt the presence
of my grandmother,
my great-aunt,
and my "other"
family.
I'm not rich enough
to live there,
but neither was
my grandmother,
whose foot left the ground
in Guileen,
and never returned.
She would
understand.

Natural I

Here is the crusty, old naturist/curmudgeon, in his own kitchen.

While we're on the subject of statistics, this poetry blog has had visits from approximately 70 countries. The top ten are: the United States, Canada, Uruguay, Germany, Russia, France, Ireland, Brazil, a Middle Eastern country whose privacy I will respect, and Ukraine, in that order. A country that almost made the list but didn't quite is Poland. Other important contributors of visits would be Portugal, Denmark, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Argentina. Recently there have been huge numbers of visits from Unknown Region (probably China, through VPN). I am happy to see that India is also becoming a significant visitor. Under-represented areas would be sub-Saharan Africa and the Andean parts of South America.

Thanks to everyone, in every country, who has visited this blog. If anyone tells you that no one reads poetry anymore, don't believe them.