LANGUAGE EVENT

Eskimo


Use the language of shamans.

Say the leash > mean the father
Say a road > mean the wind
Say someone with a something sticking out > mean a man
Say where things get soft > mean the guts
Say soup > mean a seal
Say Big Louse > mean a caribou
Say what makes me dive in headfirst > mean a dream
Say what cracks your ears > mean a gun
Say what looks like piss > mean your beads
Say a of frozen meat > mean a child
Say a piece of almost frozen meat > mean a grandchild
Say a jumping thing > mean a trout
Say what keeps me standing > mean your clothes
Say the person with a belly > mean the weather
Say the person with a belly getting up > mean the morning
Say the person with a belly goes to bed > mean it's nightfall
Say the little walker > mean a fox
Say walker with his head down > mean a dog
Say the bag it lies in > mean a mother
Say the bag it almost lies in > mean a stepmother
Say a person smoke surrounds > mean a live one
Say a floating one > mean an island
Say a neighbor > mean a wife
Say a flat one > mean a wolf
Say a shadow > mean a white man
Say another kind of shadow > mean a person
Say the dark one > mean the liver
Say making shadows > mean a seance
Say the shadow-maker > mean the shaman
Say he turned my mind around > mean he told me something

adapted from Shaking the Pumpkin: Traditional Poetry of the Indian North Americas; Jerome Rothenberg, editor