The Revision Process
Development of "Spider Woman's Children"
The original version appears first:
A Weaver's Words
Each day she cards
wool,
Releasing aromas of a wet lamb.
Her mind is her canvas
As her loom is the easel.
Nearby are the lowly adobe bluffs;
The hogan sits alone.
Loneliness overtakes the desert lands,
As the night crawls from the east.
She dips the wool
in dyes of Gaia--
Brown, yellow, black, white, and red--
Shades of her soul-self.
She pulls the spindled threads
While intertwining them into tapestry.
Geometric pattern insignia
The traditional desert storms:
White clouds and black lightening.
Her children only
come to visit
When they need money.
They take her traditional rugs,
To sell.
They have lost her teachings and tongue.Her mind wants to reach out--
"Please stay and talk to me, my children."
Without ears, they cannot hear.
Into the night her weaving
comb-locks her tears
into the collage of wool.
Hershman John
To review Mr. John's revision notes click on the image:
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Final version:
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