dots-menu
×

Home  »  Poetry: A Magazine of Verse  »  Mary Austin

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

Prayer to the Mountain Spirit

Mary Austin

From the Navajo

LORD of the Mountain,

Reared within the Mountain,

Young Man, Chieftain,

Hear a young man’s prayer!

Hear a prayer for cleanness.

Keeper of the strong rain

Drumming on the mountain,

Lord of the small rain

That restores the earth in newness,

Keeper of the clean rain,

Hear a prayer for wholeness.

Young Man, Chieftain,

Hear a prayer for fleetness.

Keeper of the deer’s way,

Reared among the eagles,

Clear my feet of slothness.

Keeper of the paths of men,

Hear a prayer for straightness.

Hear a prayer for braveness.

Lord of the thin peaks,

Reared amid the thunders,

Keeper of the headlands

That uphold the earth in harvest,

Keeper of the strong rocks

Hear a prayer for staunchness.

Young Man, Chieftain,

Spirit of the Mountain!