1912 - for Full Orchestra
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The Pima/Maricopa, descendants of the Hohokam, tell of the “Man in Maze.” The legend, which is taught to all Pima and Maricopa children, depicts the experiences that occur during the journey through the maze of life. While negative events happen, children are told that, ultimately, each person can discover a physical, mental, social and spiritual balance. At the center of the maze are one’s dreams and goals. When one reaches the center, the legend describes that each person is met by the Sun God who blesses and greets us and passes us on to the next world.

I, Se-eh-ha, call to you, my River People,
Call to you, my Akimel Au-Authm,
My Xalychidom Piipaash, call to you, my
People Who Live Toward the Water. I,
Se-eh-ha, I, the Man in the Maze, recall to
You the eyes of your inmost visions, call to you
With the singing voices of your grandparents,
Their parents, their parents and grandparents
Before them. I, the Man in the Maze, call you
To listen as I weave my words into you, weave
You into my words, lead you into the Maze of
My making for I am the Man in the Maze and
You are the people of my dreaming, and I,
Se-eh-ha, now dream you into being.

See you now as in a dream my footprints
In the path before you, know my footprint as
Your own as once I knew the soft and silted
Steps before me; walk upon the sifting,
Shifting shadows of your ancestors, and place
Your prints upon their passage, dust upon the dust.
And through the dust there is the maze that you
Now walk, the maze of your own making as
You walk the path you only see when you
Look back and see the patterns you have woven,
The people you have chosen as companions on
Your journey through the dusk into the dark, from
Dark into the darker still. And in the darkest corner
Of the maze of your own making know you this:
Here, at the almost-ending of the spirals upon spirals,
Here, upon the turning at the corner to the end, here
Abides the light that shines all dreaming into being,
That illumines every shadow of each ancestor.

Oh, my People Who Live Toward the Water,
Oh, my River People, know you this:
We are of the ancient Hohokam, the people of
The Salt River Valley, they who saw the weaving
Of the waters with the eyes of their inmost vision,
Illumined by the light that shines all dreaming
Into being. They wove the waters into spirals
On the Valley, singing with the voices of our
Grandparents, their parents, their parents
And grandparents before them in the time
Before our knowing, in the seasons we yet know.
We are Hohokam; weavers of the water, seeders
Of the Valley; with the labor of our hands did
We dream you into being, did we dream all of
You into being; look you to the Rivers, and remember.

Copyright 2010 Martha Kirby Capo