Grandmother's Song

I received this healing gift from an individual aspiring to "carry the pipe".

Grandmother's Song

Morning comes softly,
beating drums resonate,
tonally balance new light of day.

Triad grouped music,
resolute steadiness,
readiness stomping a sure pathway.

Diminished notes fade
discorded settling,
tom-tom's gift fading in gently play.

A doorway opens,
accepting tomorrow,
One last rise, one last fall, leads the way.

Author's Note

A beautiful healer sang this Cherokee song for me. I do not know what the words meant, but this is what I felt. Thank you for reading. I will listen to our Native Tribal Music with a new respect. This music is spiritual complexity delivered in the most simplistic medium.

Reviews

[Lyn Anderson]

I have never been exposed to Cherokee, but I imagine it is similar to the native music and language in Canada, and this is a beautiful piece to go with it.

[David Scott]

I like how tribal people hold onto their histories and traditions. Modern society could learn a great deal from the ancient ones.

[s y e]

Ah Pasta Man this is lovely.

I really loved this one.

It reads as a beautiful song. :-)) Very lyrical.

I loved it.

[David Scott]

Thank you Sye.
The moment was special.

[m.s.early]

Certainly I have no idea of the song, but that it is attached to a grandmother offers antiquity and grace and delicate affection. Passing music by generations is a touching sentiment and symbolic of familial love.

Perhaps that I fancy myself an intermediate musician I held the words especially careful in my ears and mind, or perhaps of my affection for my own Cherokee grandmother I listened a little extra closely.

Thank you for sharing a song I will never hear although somehow, now I know it a little.

[David Scott]

Thank you for the review Xavier.
You know the place the old ones have in Cherokee culture better than I do. They carry the stories and the songs, the medicine and the spirit of the tribe.
The song I wrote this poem for was the song used to welcome the day and to end the day. Same song for both events... Ask your grandmother, she will know it and then so will you... :)
Have a blessed day!

[Joiedevivre]

love this one, it has takes on the entrancing rhythm of a drum and journeys you into the music of your mind.

[David Scott]

Great! Did you feel the triads? Only broken by the tom tom two syllable ending in the first line of each stanza and then at each three syllable pause.
I literally pulled my car off the road and wrote this on my I phone when it came to me last night.
OCD much? Ha.
Thank you for reading and "listening" closely.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

I met a real American Indian when I was studying in the States and he mesmerised me with Indian ways. This reminded me of them and is in a poem which deftly describes this world of myth, legends and mystique.

[David Scott]

The American Native Tribes are vast and varied. We could learn much from them still.
Thank you for reading John.

[Rachelle]

I wonder if anyone has made a study on the neurological effects of Native American music and rhythm just as there have been studies on Baroque music affecting the brain? The music must have triggered your alpha-theta state....
Sorry, reverting back to old scientific me but I'm convinced that there is a scientific explanation behind it.

[David Scott]

Thank you sweet one. Yes, there is scientific explanation to everything. Science and the ethereal are one. We just need more information. It does no discount power or effect on human affect to explore the scientific source of our experiences.
I think you might be in to something.

[emmajoy]

There's music in words and phrases. When it rises from ancient forms there's a heartbeat, a throbbing, rather like a call to side and place. I can feel it when i read this poem - have done, four times. I have the same video playing three times on my Profile page, it has the same effect on me, it haunts me, i hear it even when I'm asleep. Maybe that's how you came to write your poem, initially gifted by someone who perhaps knew you more than you know yourself - at times.

Guess that if poets.writers can include the same heartbeat in their work then, a preciousness of discovery's been found!

[David Scott]

Thank you Emma. I have just edited this a little to help the music flow better...
The ancient roots of all music, poetry, and art is in spiritual enlightenment and healing. It is only our "modern" societies where arts are separated into the secular world and spirituality is structured into rigidly defined religions. I found my experience last night spiritual and healing. I have often listened to the tribal drums and haunting chants if tribal tradition, but never tied it in to healing or connecting with spiritual acceptance. I learned... Finally. Ha.
Thank very much for your comments.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

their is something so incredibly spiritual and soothing about native American music and culture...

something healing in it...this poem resonates with that feeling.

[David Scott]

Thank you Jacob. :)
I rewrote it this morning with better syllabic rhythm. I really had to just jot this thought gown while in my car last night... I'm a creature of inspiration. Ha. The editing/perspiration comes later if ever.
Good to see you reviewing my poetry friend.