Original Poem "The Bone Gatherer"

Based on an archetypal legend...

Here's the text.

The Bone Gatherer

Every night and day
The ragged woman follows
The same routine
Searching for the bleached white bones
From one end of the meadow,
To the other.

She searches for the thieving
Footprints, for the trail
They always leave.

Where did they go now?

The raggd woman has hunted for years
She has found and lost them and found and lost again
She knows the routine by heart.

She closes her eyes
Opens her arms to the sky
And wails
She's a banshee
Calling up a blessing
Waking the bones.

She wails for the mothers
Whose children lie lost away
who travel unprotected in the winter night
She wails for women bent with age
Whose heartache traces
In the line of their smile.
She wails for women
Who have never known lovers.
Whose bodies mourn
For children they will never kiss.

She wails most
For women unwanted by their fathers
Whose mothers have died.

The leaves of the trees
Vibrate with the wail
It bounces in the canyons
Where old wolves gather to howl
Before they jump into death.
It calls the trout to the top of the water

The woman finishes and
A sapphire tear
Falls to the grass
Shattering into a thousand birds
That take to the sky in song.

The ragged woman then stands silent
As an empty church
The wind responds
"Ovah thah, tha rhoooooooooooooooc"
"ovah thah, tha broooooooooooooooc"

She finds the bones.
She makes a fire.
She peels off her clothes
And in the moonlight
She sways and sings
Until the bones come alive and
Run like the coyote

Running until they are dry and white
Scattered once again.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Poem
• original
• poetry
• bone
• gatherer
• women

[AngeMlO]

Where is the real Miss PINKOLA ESTES???

[Poetivity]

@AngeMlO Don't know.

But Pinkonla Estes didn't write the legend...just used it for psycho analysis of the female experience.

[Iberianwildwolf]

women who run with the wolves?:)

[Poetivity]

Actually, the archetype is from an ancient legend...but I believe that book uses the legends to explain personality types....and also used the legend used here.

[mahalo111]

Excellent writing! Please stick with poetry and not slandering candidates you haven't bothered to try to understand.

[Poetivity]

It's a free country...and I have tried to understand him...I just happen to disagree with some of his agenda.

[967greywolf]

seen two coyotes this evening as i hunted for food...

[eilzed]

keep creating and expressing yourself... your poetry is beautiful. Most people can't even conceive of an open mind... they are stuck in a linear ping pong game.. Did you do the artwork in the back ground?

[streetinspired]

@AngeMlO she writes for a Catholic oriented website, or at least she was last year. don't have the website name onhand right now. might be able to google it.

[ErinnE3]

very pretty~~~

[BigPrairieDude]

Beautiful legend. Well done..

[Iberianwildwolf]

That's the one I have in my channel. I love it. Thanks for sharing.