Five Photographs by Edward S. Curtis, by Erica Goss

Crater Lake, by Edward S. Curtis (USA). 1923.

Crater Lake, 1923
 
I stood before the lake
one summer day
 
minerals fell
silent fragments
 
all at once
the souls of children rose up together
 
headed west
over the valley
 
surrender
not grief
 
nothing rippled
the lake’s surface

An Oasis in the Badlands- Sioux, by Edward S. Curtis (USA). 1905.

An Oasis in the Badlands, 1905
 
This land has not saved us.
My horse drinks here
for the last time.
Winter will come, unaware
of how I leaned back in the saddle
as my animal filled herself,
the river emptying
under her hooves;
loss wears away
to black and white
soft like ashes after
a prairie fire.

Canyon de Chelly, by Edward S. Curtis (USA). 1904.

Canyon de Chelly, 1904
 
The distance divides itself
and becomes greater,
a covert equation.
 
Our horses raise their heads,
alert to barometric change.
We look up from the sandy floor
 
to the top of an island.
What logic put an ocean here
and then took it away
 
gallon by salty gallon?

The Rush Gatherer, by Edward S. Curtis (USA). 1910.

The Rush Gatherer, 1910
 
All day
I go about my work
groping through mud
and living things.
People think
the hardest part
is bundling thick
wet grass, but
it’s watching my hands
disappear into
that dark water
again and again.

The Vanishing Race, by Edward S. Curtis (USA). 1904.

The Vanishing Race, 1904
 
When you finally saw us
you gave us names
intended to destroy.
 
We are going
not because we are doomed
but because you are. 
 
You have facts and we
have facts.  How differently
the truth accords itself.
 
We know
how to address the mountain.
No towns will come here
 
and roads will dwindle to one.
No one else wanted this land:
we, its reluctant
 
caretakers, ride
the horses you brought us
straight into the cliff.

Erica Goss

Four of these poems were first published as a sequence by Ekphrasis.
 
Erica Goss served as Poet Laureate of Los Gatos, CA from 2013-2016. She is the author of Night Court, winner of the 2016 Lyrebird Award, Wild Place and Vibrant Words: Ideas and Inspirations for Poets. Recent work appears in Lake Effect, Atticus Review, Contrary, Convergence, Spillway, Eclectica, The Tishman Review, Tinderbox, The Red Wheelbarrow, and Main Street Rag, among others. She is editor of Sticks & Stones, a bi-monthly poetry newsletter. Please visit her at www.ericagoss.com.