Thursday

Have I mentioned that Thursday is my favorite day of the week? It is. I've often wondered if there is some kind of cosmic connection to this day because I was born on a Thursday. Oh before you laugh at me too hard, consider how the universe is, all things connected in delicate threads of time and molecules. In many indigenous cultures, the names of days meant something. In my Abenaki culture this is surely so. Even in the anglo culture there are assigned meanings to days and months. We've all heard the rhyme about Monday's Child, etc. (Thursday's Child has far to go apparently). In my writing I have relied heavily upon the culture of my ancestors and this is true of a new collection, Native Moons, Native Days, as yet unpublished. I share with you here one of the days poems: the Thursday poem. Note the meaning at the end. Don't worry over trying to pronounce the Abenaki words... just roll them around in your mouth as they seem to be for you.

Ktsi Wliwini (great thanks)

Cowissewachook

Rough mountain, windfall mountain 

what can you see from there? 

Can you see me here in the meadow, 

worrying in the afternoon heat?

See where the eagle nests, 

pair of eggs delicate and vulnerable,

ready to split — kaamoji! 

So the line continues, flying off the lists 

we made to save them.  Rough mountain,

windfall mountain, what will I find there 

where you cover the sky?

Yawda alokan, Thursday. Full of questions.