Yá'át'ééh

I’ve read about the Navajo survivors

of the great invasion, I’ve listened

carefully to the cadence of their

speech and think we have much

to learn, and wonder what we would

become if their language was ours.

Have you ever heard the Navajo

talk? It is as though each word

is a gift to be savored like slow

melting chocolate until just one

thought has matured, is complete.

Where do words come from to

paint a moment forever with the

color of beauty or truth, or joy,

alive for this moment only?

Have you rested side by side in the

quiet of indigo deep in the big empty

to listen for the sound of night,

cross legged under stars and the

silhouette of mountains? Have you

touched her wrist to gift the aroma

of a dream watered in the blue

of silence when you knew for

certain her smile would forever

travel inside your eyes?

Did she wait in the velvet air before

she turned so you could see yourself

mirrored in the violet iris of her eyes

where distant lightening dances to the

sound of your different drummer?

Author's Note

RAVIN' INK poem for 02/01/2025 "Conversation."

Reviews

[Lorry]

Funnily enough Vol, this is one of my gripes about hipsters of all people who think it's cool and oh so interesting to say they are part cherokee, without even knowing it is pronounced more like Tsa-rah-gee. (The actual pronunciation depends on the proxatonic stress used and despite my guessing on the spelling of proxatonic, I think I am far nearer than whatever crap they are sprouting in the thought it makes them more interesting instead of the offence to the actual tribe they purport to be supporting.
But enough of those shysters (hipsters)
As you say, you have to listen to the words spoken to hear the picture they paint and thar can be true of any language our seldom used ears could hear on any given day, but choose not to.
And yes, I am ignorant of so much too, thinking that my secondary school education of French was enough to choose from a French menu in France, where I thought I was ordering beef in red wine sauce, but as it turned out it came to my table as barely cooked beef in red wine! And let me tell you, it tasted as awful as it sounds and I immediately went to burger King snd pointed to a picture of a cheeseburger.
Well it seemed apt to me to eat it in the land of cheese eating surrender monkeys! 😃
And as you can read from that last comment, there are some universal languages, so God bless the Simpsons 😃

[Vol]

Lorry,
WE worry so much about our politics, corruption, or who won what game but...The giant elephant in the room, the one we can never acknowledge is America's genocide of all the Indian nations we encountered. In "Old Town" Alberquerque the Navajo spread their blankets and sell their beautiful, handmade jewelry, blankets ands other crafts. I cannot even look at them, I am so ashamed. I've read many timew thjat when a technologically superior culture encounters a more backward people, the weaker is always destroyed. It's not the tech, it is the evil in the hearts of men.
Vol

[Lorry]

A perfect summation of those who deem themselves superior, yet are far from it. The bigger the mouth, the higher the position.
Maybe we should give everything back our ancestors took. I mean, we won't, but wouldn't it be nice to see them all grovel in the dirt seeking forgiveness for their and their ancestors crimes?

[Vol]

Oh, man Lorry, there is nothing we can do to make our past anything but evil. But mankind has always been cruel, right now as we speak there in the former Yugoslavia, people hate each other and threaten genocide, not to mention what Myanmar trying to ethnicly clense themselves ot that tribr in the north... We've been doing that stuff before we left the trees...

[ETERNITY]

I did want to add this ... "Yá'át'ééh" is a Navajo greeting that means "hello" or "it is good". It can also be used to say "I like it" when combined with the word "shił".

[ETERNITY]

@Lorry I grew up telling people I was part Cherokee, sorry, because that's what I was told. Ignorance is a strange bedfellow.

[Vol]

Glenda,
It is hard to imagine being from a multi generational Reb and not have some Cherokee blood mixed in...
Vol

[ETERNITY]

I know, my love,I mean, Vol...My sister sent a sample to Ancestry and the results were Not a TRACE of native blood at all!

[ETERNITY]

You know what seems ridiculous to me is African Americans pushing for Reparations and Native Americans are left without. I mean, they have casinos and stuff. Is that enough?

Always fascinatiing Vol ... The romantic flair of the final two stanzas is enough to make my heart beat faster but that's all I want to say about that.

[Vol]

Glenda,
Thank you... I am aglow with success...
Vol

[bred Brick Keshner]

Now this is beautiful and respectful and venturesome, I do hope the heart of all languages have this qualities and properties in some form and intensity. 👍🏻🙏🏻🕊

[Vol]

Red,
the Navajo sit and talk, they wait until they are sure the other person is finished before responding... We are not built that way...
Vol

[bred Brick Keshner]

Well, even more so now with this wonderful insight, I do HOPE! Perhaps some things that are not inbuilt could be learnt, however imperfectly. 🙏🏻🌧

[redzone]

to learn you must listen and to know you must be humble. we learn the wisdom of the Elders by listening to the wind. to find balance, we must understand nídoolnih go ánííłni'ígíí (we are all connected).

Vol, Yá’át’ééh. your poem is wonderfully rich in both its natural flow and in its cultural meaning. We can feel the beauty in these words if we listen. Thank you for a truly nice poem.
-Curt

[Vol]

Curt,
Thank's man, you obviously know more about the Dine than I have picked up from Tony Hillerman, a night in Gallop, driving through the reservation on my way to Salt Lake and a few days in Alberquerque. From everything I have seen and read, it would be hard to find a better perspective on life than they have. We worry about all the corruption in Washington, but never look at our own hearts.
Vol