The Maya appreciate people
even when departed are dead.
Maya invite dead spirit
to continue in the world;
to remain in the world
to help with their toil.
To do this the Maya pass
coca leaves three times;
around honoured laid out
corpse of the dead person.
While in esteemed western society
we do not even appreciate;
the living when they are alive
when unknown strangers unknown to us.
Why is it people living at altitude
in primal harmonious agricultural lifestyles;
have a reverent respect for nature essential
have a more enlightened attitude to life?
I thought pursuit altitude sickness
was supposed to harass affect;
people living at such high altitude
yet Maya living in clouds of Gods;
become tired ill with decent into valley
of pristine fertile green pastures;
where interactive infection breeds
swifter than can grow green spring grass.
Even among Maya some villagers
get drunk so become violent;
and cannot behave as civilized
people by necessity must behave.
Even when Mayan villagers
must sacrifice a lama for meat;
music is appreciation played
all care all life reverence;
must be appropriately given
to all community animals sacrificed.
Even the tinku the fighting ritual
an encounter of differing energies;
tinku is ritual encounter not brawl
to restore unity among participants.
Tinku meaning equals fighting not to win
but to define territory between villages;
the recognition is that community unity
is needed for essential survival of villages.
Feathered hats of warriors are shaped
like hats of conquistadors who took territory;
this fighting ritual is for luck to keep away evil
evil legacy is greed rage conquistador values.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem