When Mud Woman Begins

by

Nora Naranjo-Morse

---

Electricity

down my arm
through this clay
forming into
spirit shapes

of men

women
and children
I have seen
somewhere before.

Electricity

surging upward
as I mix
this mud
like my mother

as her mother did
with small
brown feet.

Folding into this earth

a decision of
joyful play,
transcending expectations
of fear

failure
or perfection.

Creating spirits

calling invitations
of celebration.
What occurs
in completed form,
bright

and bold,
is motion
from our mother's skin.

I smile

momentarily satisfied
with my play.
Electricity,
generated from star colors
far from home,
entering

through my feet
blessing my hands
and opening my heart.

---

From Mud Woman, Poems from the Clay , University of Arizona Press
© 1992 Nora Naranjo-Morse

---

Back to the Nora Naranjo-Morse website.