This poem is dedicated to my friend Irene in Sweden. Irene is creating a documentary on her family’s experience with enculturation. It is a way of healing the past, present, and future generations. Our DNA is affected by our experiences and environment. Those affects are passed down. Our ancestors have both wisdom to impact from these experiences and wounds that we can help heal in them and in us.
This is a great card from the “Angels and Ancestors” deck by Kyle Gray, art by Lily Moses. The card represents Elder with an aboriginal from the oldest tribal culture still living, Indigenous Australians. Day 19 of National/Global Poetry Writing Month (AKA NaPoWriMo).
Elder
The Elder invites us to healing change
Wise eyes of ancestors
Capable hands
Full hearts
Full heartbreaks
stumbling around in our human condition.
Nurture and nature
passed down
What can we heal?
What can we embrace?
What can we celebrate?
What can we learn and not repeat?
I am a unique mix
bits of those who raised me
and those gone before
underlying my will and hopes,
my decisions and choices.
The energy of my spirit
is more powerful than the past,
more powerful than inherited limitations.
With the learnings from my elders,
I will create my own path
stumbling around in the human condition.
I will work to heal my ancestors
I will work to heal myself
so that each new generation
may be prosperous and happy
and know they are free.
CreatetheDawn 