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Shaman Poets
by Beth Beurkens, MA

Editor's Note from Peter Clark: Beautiful shamanic poetry here!

        For Michael Harner
        
They dance on the limestone walls
of Trois Frères
Lascaux
merged with bird and bear
antlers bobbing
shaman poets

      my ancestors

they’ve been singing
for 60,000 years
the kak kak kak of eagle

      singsong whistle of whale

silver ululatings

      of Milky Way

lightning songs

             breath of the ancients

flying
on hooves of thunder
thrumming shaman drums
crimson dawn chants
jaguar night riffs
undulating whispers

    jade    
      turquoise
 
All of life
is fashioned of song
sings to the shaman
as I write these words
on this cotton wall


                             Beth Beurkens
                20 July 2006
                Waning Moon
                after heat exhaustion on Medicine Lake

Shaman’s Bridge
by Beth Beurkens

        
        We live
        beneath the shaman’s bridge
        luminescent
        star-trails

        undulating
        across the sky

        On ancient prayers
        ancestral shamans
        fly the Milky Way

                the drum is the horse
                the drum is the horse

        the moon is the shaman’s eye
        the sun, her heart
        god’s face, her mirror
        
        
        
        
                        Beth Beurkens
                        Shadow Mountains
                        October 2002

About the Author

Beth Beurkens, MA, has been a teacher of shamanism and a vision quest guide for 22 years. She is a faculty member at the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, instructor at Rogue Community College and the School of Women & Earth (Switzerland), and a teacher of creative writing. Beth leads dynamic seminars in North America and in Europe and has a shamanic healing practice in Ashland, Oregon and Basel, Switzerland. Beth has taught religion and spirituality courses at numerous California colleges for thirty one years and holds an M.A. in philosophy from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Beth has studied extensively with Michael Harner, Alicia Luengas Gates and Sandra Ingerman. She is the author of "Shaman's Eye" and "Shaman: Spirit Walker" 2010 and 2011 wall calendars.