WEBVTT

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In the '70s, too, Diane
Rothenberg and I and our son,

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Matthew, went to live on this
Allegany Seneca reservation

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in western New York
state, where she

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did important
ethno-historical work,

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and I did less
important translations

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with Seneca singers,
like Richard Johnny John,

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of traditional Seneca poetry.

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And a book called
Seneca Journal.

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An old dreamer religion there,
and this poem calls attention

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to that at a point when a
dear poet friend, David Antin,

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made the claim that
he never dreamed.

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That changed later.

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This is addressed to
David Antin at the time

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when he wasn't dreaming.

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And the Senecas had a
long tradition of dreams,

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and there's a lot
of Seneca religion,

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mythology, whatever
you want, in this.

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So Seneca Journal
seven, "The Dreamers."

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For David Antin.

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It actually begins-- it begins
with one of those contests

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that the poets get into.

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Somebody says, we want
to do a series of poems

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based on picture postcards.

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So I had a picture postcard
of an Indian couple sitting

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at their kitchen table.

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And they're a couple, so,
you know, it's full of magic.

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"That couple sitting in
splendor of old houses--

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Albert Jones and
his wife Geneva,

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were old before my time.

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He was the last of
the Seneca diviners.

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Died 1968, the year we
first stayed in Salamanca,

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with the power to know dreams.

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'Their single divinity,'
wrote Fremin--

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Society of Jesus, 1650.

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As we say, divine, the deva in
us, like a devil or a divus,

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deus.

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When these old woods were
rich with god's people called

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powers, they would
appear in words.

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Our language hides them.

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Even now, the action of the
poem brings them to light.

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Dear David, not in the
business man's imagination,

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but asking 'who is Beaver?'

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Forces them out of the one
mind in mything, mouthing

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the grains of language.

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As David, that sounds like
'deva,' means 'beloved.'

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Thus, every Indian
once had a name.

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'Devils,' the Jesuits said, or
'dreams,' but were barred from

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the dying man's room, who
sat dreaming, singing,

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surrounded by bells, knives,
needles, scissors, blankets,

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caps, coats, wampum
belts, beads, awls,

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the thousand objects
of his dreams,

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was careful not to
kill a desire in sleep.

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He knew he wanted to eat
dog's flesh or man's,

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that his father's
hatchet had vanished.

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Something forever
secret waited in him.

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The 13th virgin in the love
feast always out of reach.

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Therefore, they fed
him like babe or woman.

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The dark diviner at his side
wept still over riddles, beads,

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and pumpkins, and
the man screamed,

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rolling in the fire, cut his
own fingers off with seashells.

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Once aimed a blow at some
poor girl's head but stopped,

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said, 'I am satisfied.

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My dream requires
nothing further.'

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Like the vision-- as a boy, he
saw an old man of rare beauty

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who held out bear meat in
right hand, human in left,

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ate of the bear
and was a hunter.

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Came back, ordered gifts,
10 dogs, 10 porcelain

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beads from each cabin, a
collar, belt of wampum,

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10 rows wide, four measures
of sunflower seeds,

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and sat 10 hours by scorching
flame, singing his death song.

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So the Jesuits wrote, 'all their
cabins they have filled with

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dreams.'

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Was it the moon she saw,
like the moon in Poland,

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that old mother, once lighted
up our minds that the Iroquois

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woman dreamed of, had walked
out from her cabin, baby

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daughter in her arms?

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'Old moon's dropped down
to Earth,' she says.

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'Has become a woman like
myself, but holds another babe,

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as if I walked into a mirror.'

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And the moon stands blood red.

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Says, 'I am thy dominant
seigneur, fat with my moon

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glow.

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Grant thee the
power to name gifts.

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Maybe tobacco, flashy beads,
robe of red squirrel fur,

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to thee be given.

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See they proclaim dream
feasts in my name.

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So much I love thee, I
would thee be like me.

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Like fire-- wholly, to
live in color of my fire.'

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Now is herself.

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Red lady dresses all up in red.

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Her feathers, cap,
belt, shoes-- all red.

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She's even smearing her body.

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Red encircles each protuberance.

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Red of her labia--

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so fine is her brain
turned upside down.

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Now she will walk barefoot
through 200 fires,

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squawk her old woman
song, groan red with love.

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Stretches her pink tongue
to touch her last desire.

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Turned upside down.

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This is the ceremony at last.

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There is nothing
before it greater

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than the woman at the
rim of her own dream.

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Sees a new world
below, the air expands,

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blows against her legs.

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Its fingers open the dull labia.

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Suddenly aglow and burning
red with a new promise.

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The world-child takes root
in her, will be a daughter.

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She be the grandmother
to what is good and bad.

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Walks now in the new
world below her head,

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like crossing the back of
an old turtle on your hands

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in a country where
everyone wears feathers.

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Where skins like glass opens
a window in her breast,

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say from which an Indian, tired
from his show, stares out,

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shines at you.

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A gold tooth and a terrible
top hat with flags."

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