Renaissance 1978

           

 Part 1: the Harvest

Make way, you acolytes and English Pilgrims
Make way, you witch hunters and grim colonists
Your age is passing and the drums are rising
Let us hear from the drums and the flutes
Let us hear from the throats of music
Move over, soul-hungry crusader,
Give way, iron-hearted missionary
The greatest harvest is coming and there is much dancing for the Maize

Be still, Old Man, let the magnitude stop your head.  Stop you dead
There is beauty all around you which you have not seen

Let the Lion open up your eyes
He will teach you to stalk the ages for the Sacred Maize

I am new and I have a new heritage!
Mine are now the lines of the Lion and my stock is a holy scion
My Father gave me impetus and my Mother gave me form
At this tent
All tribes and tongues latch

Wake up, you bourgeois, you clothes hangers
Robe yourselves in fine colors
And dance like David for the Maize

Yield now to us, Sees-Through-One-Eye-Darkly,
Hear now from the Crows and Coyotes
Blind-Guide, hear now as the trees clap their hands
That which you have tried to extinguish is not extinct
And the voices of the ages are singing loudly
Dancing with all their might

Jesus blessed the bread
We too, we increase the bread!
Yield up!  Yield up!  This is a sacred meal!


           
                    Renaissance

                 Part 2: Born of Spirit


Your persecutions are full, Self-Righteous
Your river beds have dried up and your branch is withered
And those whom you drove out you now seek diligently for help!

Ah ha!  We stand back and grin at one another
While the one who labeled us the off-scourings
Now learns our prayers and songs.

Come, Ghost-of-a-Man, you are too frail to hurt us now. 
Drink here, at this shining river bank
Feel the life of our faith.

Years ago the dark one swept over the land
Turning up our holy places and spoiling our women
The Great Father turned His cheek, but He saved the greater glory for us
Great hope for us!
We take back our lands with strength! 
Our heritage with fierce joy!
Our women with exultation! 

And you are hostage!
Now learn this Way.
You are such a pitiful thing
We might easily off-scour you
But listen!  We shall not mimic your way
Power has revealed you to us at the proper time.
Your children have joined our children and we feed them Spirit
They feed on the Sacred Meal. 
Children of the Beautiful Path.
These are the Children of the Way.

Come here, Ghost-of-a-Man, your judgment days are over.
We stop your world.  It is suspended. 
Deal now with all you have refused.

He sees.

Look!
He is no longer shameless!
No longer blind to his vulnerability. 
We laugh and throw cold river water on him
We baptize him with The-Running-Water
No longer Ghost-of-a-Man, no longer Self-Righteous
He has lost his old form, and the dark one is defeated.
We name him “One-Who-Shines-Like-The-River.” 

We laugh and laugh
And throw cold river water on him,
We immerse him in The-Running-Water
No longer Boast-of-a-Man
No longer Self-Righteous
Unbound
Stripped of darkness
He has lost his old form
And the dark one is defeated.

We call him  “One-Who-Shines-Like-The-River.”