A snapshot of a moment between a young person and an elder that teaches lessons critical to Native traditions.
Hello to you Keith McNally of The Question Guy podcast listening in Suffolk, Virginia!
Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with 60 Seconds for Time Out Tuesday and your host, Diane Wyzga.
The other day Keith mentioned feeling sad that we might have lost the old ways, the sacred ways of teaching wisdom. And then - as these things happen - I stumbled on a favorite poem that might show us how to return to those old ways:
Birdfoot’s Grampa
"The old man
must have stopped our car
two dozen times to climb out
and gather into his hands
the small toads blinded
by our lights and leaping, live drops of rain.
The rain was falling
a mist about his white hair
and I kept saying
you can’t save them all
accept it, get back in
we’ve got places to go.
But the leathery hands full
of wet brown life
knee deep in the summer
roadside grass
he just smiled and said
they have place to go
too." [~ Joseph Bruchac]
Episode Notes
Click to read Study Guide
Overview
“Birdfoot’s Grampa” is a poem by Joseph Bruchac, a Nulhegan Abenaki storyteller, author, poet, and musician. Originally published in 1975 as postcard #28 in a collection of poetry postcards, the poem is Bruchac’s most widely anthologized piece. It appears in one of Bruchac’s early chapbooks titled Entering Onondaga (1978) and in Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry (1994), an anthology of poems aimed at giving voice to the everyday experience of diverse peoples in America. The notes to Bruchac’s 1980 essay, Translator’s Son indicate that “Birdfoot’s Grampa” presents a snapshot of a moment between a young person and an elder that teaches lessons critical to Native traditions.
Joseph Bruchac is a prolific author, and his published works span a number of genres that include poetry, nonfiction, adult fiction, and children’s books. Bruchac first published a book of poetry in 1971, “Birdfoot’s Grampa” is part of his earlier work. It is representative of Bruchac’s ability to deliver solemn, important messages in a playful style. When asked about the poem’s meaning in a 1996 interview, Bruchac explained that the poem was inspired by a drive he took with Swift Eagle, an elderly Pueblo Apache storyteller. The pair were driving to a speaking engagement, and they were running late, but Swift Eagle and Bruchac stopped repeatedly to move toads off the road, much to Bruchac’s frustration. Swift Eagle said the last lines of the poem to Bruchac, providing him with the inspiration to write “Birdfoot’s Grampa.” Of the poem, Bruchac himself says it is “about being stupid and having your eyes opened by an elder.”
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Stories From Women Who Walk Production Team
Podcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story Arts
Music: Mer’s Waltz from Crossing the Waters by Steve Schuch & Night Heron Music
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