Magic Words

Eskimo (anonymous)

translated from the Inuit by Edward Field

In the very earliest time,

when both people and animals lived on earth,

a person could become an animal if he wanted to

and an animal could become a human being.

Sometimes they were people

and sometimes animals

and there was no difference.

All spoke the same language.

That was the time when words were like magic.

The human mind had mysterious powers.

A word spoken by chance

might have strange consequences.

It would suddenly come alive

and what people wanted to happen could

happen--

all you had to do was say it.

Nobody could explain this:

That's the way it was.

A Book of Luminous Things, Edited by Czeslaw Milosz,

Harcourt Publishing, 1996, pg. 268

Adult

Linda Gregg

I've come back o the country where I was happy

changed. Passion puts no terrible strain on me now.

I wonder what will take the place of desire.

I could be the ghost of my own life returning

to the places I lived best. Walking here and there,

nodding when I see something I cared for deeply.

Now I'm in my house listening to the owls calling

and wondering if slowly I will take on flesh again.

A Book of Luminous Things, Edited by Czeslaw Milosz,

Harcourt Publishing, 1996, pg. 221