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Saving Great Turtle

Rest, little child, as yet undefiled.
I’ll sing you a story, an old allegory.
This big world so fertile rests on a fat turtle.
It suffers the weight of greed, lust and hate.

The sky has a black eye from smokestacks and wheels.
Hear the cry of the loons and the barking of seals.
When the forests are felled, the oceans will eat the hills.

Wake, all you reapers, you takers and keepers.
Let us be one with the ones who have none.
A new generation must fix degradation.
All treasures to share with nurturing care.

Who will awaken? Who is not shaken
by caps that are shrinking, by heads that aren’t thinking?
When substance is lost, we all will pay the cost.

In the Sky above the Water there lived the Ancient One and his people. A Great Tree bearing flowers and fruits nourished them. One night, the wife of the Ancient One dreamed that the Great Tree was uprooted. To fulfill such a powerful prophecy, the Great One and his warriors pulled with all their might and lifted up the Great Tree, leaving a big black hole. Many creatures tried and failed to reach down and pull up Earth from the bottom of the hole. Finally, muskrat succeeded, clutching Earth in her right paw. Great Turtle said, “Put Earth on my back.” The tiny bit of Earth grew on Great Turtle’s back until it became the whole wide World.*

Now into the black night the tortoise might drop.
Will you help the Great Turtle keep our garden on top?
Will you see wisdom etched on the back of his shell?
Oh, Little One, will you help?

* Spoken narrative adapted from creation story of the Onandaga Indians of the northeastern woodlands of North America. 

You Are

See the light that shines in the darkness,
Hear the silent lips, the shuffle of tired feet.
Bring your gifts to the doorstep of a heart in a sling.
Bring your juice pressed from fruit both sour and sweet.

You are the poet, you are the clown, you are the artist able to fashion
a new smile on someone draggled by despair.
Take the lead, plant the seed of hope with compassion.
Help a shattered spirit find repair.

Rain, tears and fears, the falling and the rising:
necessary grayness for the whetting of new growth.
Life and death in circles ever flowing.
Inspiration, expiration — not one but both.

Against Your Will (The Trail of Tears Story)

This is the broadcast version. There is also a longer version with additional verses.

In 18-3-0 “Sharp Knife” Jackson carved out
For tribes in the southeast a land exchange route
A Removal Act that Emerson and Crockett decried
Surely natives and squatters can live side by side

Soldiers guarded forts and a river of clay
from Lake of the Woods to Galveston Bay
The lands kept on shifting, the lines all were gray
Where there’s greed there’s death in the old USA

[chorus]
In the camps where you died
In the land of the free
On the trails where you cried
Digetsi ilvse’i
You were driven like cattle against your will

1n 1835 the Treaty of New Echota
offered millions in cash and land in Oklahoma.
Chief John Ross from Georgia handed on a petition.
That you marked as a sign of rejection

Chief Ross cut a deal for self-preservation
Cross the wide Mississippi without reservation
Heed the acts and the treaties and the guns in your backs
Join your brothers on the Plains, time to take up your packs

[bridge]
We sent armies of thousands to shepherd you west
Made you homeless in your homeland with rifles and fists

[chorus]
In the camps where you died
In the land of the free
On the trails where you cried
Digetsi ilvse’i
You were driven like cattle against your will

Note: “digetsi ilvse’i” means “driven like cattle against their will” (third-person reportive tense in the Cherokee language. Source: Ryan Mackey, www.cherokee.org)

In Your Dreams

Blind man says you’ll see the light.
Deaf girl sings you’ll hear the harmony.
In your dreams.

Dead man cries fight fire with water.
Virgin smiles life for death to self.
In your dreams.

In your half-waking state,
you will come to know your fate.
In your dreams.
In your wildest dreams.

There is no need to fear it,
this alchemy of spirit.
In the matrix of your being
is the portal to all healing.

Mute boy signs your tongue will dance.
Beggar man shouts riches way beyond belief!
In your dreams.

Bending human nature, superhuman sight.
Tenderly embracing her impossible charms.
In your dreams.

In your half-waking state,
you will come to know your fate.
In your dreams.
In your wildest dreams.

There is no need to fear it,
this alchemy of spirit.
In the matrix of your being
is the portal to all healing.

The Everlasting

God is shrouded in history, in mystery.
Prior knowledge infuses me, confuses me.

The Everlasting ever casting
mystic shapes on humanscapes.
Love poured down on every frown.
Take me to a place of wonder,
free of all disgrace and blunder,
where the truth is in the here and now.

Sundogs dancing, blinding youth, refracting truth.
Search for pathways to heaven’s door, to evermore.

You cannot believe how deep I’ve dug,
how high I’ve climbed to catch the waves
of timeless droning,
present, past and future owning.

All of our senses, hard tempest rain,
deep needle pain. When will it end?
All our senses!

Witness freedom.
A Spirit grows. A Mother knows.
God holds you so tenderly, eternally.

Breath That Heals

In the crush of oppression
When emotions sway and the truth is gray
In a crazy obsession
When the senses war and the will is torn

That’s when you shout, for nothing can conceal
The joy when you receive the Breath that heals

Quench the flaming darts
That pierce unguarded hearts
Have authority over anger, fear and lust
Bring light, bring hope, bring trust

In the clutch of possession
When voices scream and visions are seen
In the cold disconnection
From everlasting Love, from your God above

That’s when you shout, for nothing can conceal
The joy when you receive the Breath that heals

Quench the flaming darts
That pierce unguarded hearts
Have authority over anger, fear and lust
Bring light, bring hope, bring trust

In each inspiration
When new seeds are grown and the Word is known
In times of communion
When faith and hope unite to fight the dark of night

That’s when you shout, for nothing can conceal
The joy when you receive the Breath that heals

Lyrics for “Breath That Heals” inspired by cramer-institute.com/weapons-for-warfare/