Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ARROW MAKER by CHAPMAN JAMES MILLING

First Line: DISCARDED FLAKES OF GLEAMING AMBER FLINT
Last Line: THE ARROW-MAN EACH DAY, FOR I AM HE!
Subject(s): ARROWS; NATIVE AMERICANS; INDIANS OF AMERICA; AMERICAN INDIANS; INDIANS OF SOUTH AMERICA;

Discarded flakes of gleaming amber flint
From distant quarries where the red men toiled,
Can these be arrow heads the maker spoiled,
Or merely chips that bear his hammer-print?

How patiently he must have worked away
To ruin twenty points in making one,
This wrinkled artist, squatting in the sun,
Who left them lying here that autumn day.

My songs are like these broken stones, I see
The arrow-man each day, for I am he!



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