Female Rain

Female Rain
             Dancing from the south
                    cloudy cool and gray
                         pregnant with rainchild

At dawn she gives birth to a gentle mist
flowers bow with wet sustenance  
                    luminescence all around

 

 

Níłtsá bi’áád

Níłtsá Bi’áád 
            Shá’di’ę́ęááhd’go dah naaldogo’ alzhish 
                    k’ós hazlį́į́’
                        honeezk’ází 
                           níltsą́ bi’áád bitázhool bijooltsą́
                               áádóó níłtsą́ bi’áád biyázhí bídii’na’ 


Naaniiniiłkaahgo 
        níłtsą́ bi’áád biyázhí hazl’į́į́’
                 ch’íl látah hózhóón dahtoo’bee ’ałch’į́’ háazhah 
                      áádóó nihik’inizdidláád 


 

From Songs From This Earth on Turtle’s Back: Contemporary American Indian Poetry (Greenfield Review Press, 1983), edited by Joseph Bruchac. Copyright © 1983 by Laura Tohe. Used with the permission of the author.