A thanksgiving

by Ursula K. Le Guin

Those who stood at Standing Rock 
show us how the rocks stand 
so that only earth itself can move them, 
so that they move with earth, 
dancing earth’s dance with sky 
so their shadows tell the years.

They show us that to stand in place, 
standing in your rightful place, 
is to go the right way, 
going the way the earth goes.

Those who stood at Standing Rock 
have shown us the way and blessed it. 
A dark way we have to go 
yet it is blessed in its beginning. 
May it end rightly, 
so that we stand with them there, 
so that we dance with them there 
where they stood for us at Standing Rock.

CC.2 image by Fibonacci Blue

Copyright © 2016 by Ursula K. Le Guin 

Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.