The Vocation of Wynona Murray

The pilgrimage began
at birth
going where
she could not know

down a rocky road
that pulled her daily
toward a scaly tree

where the hoot-owl lived
an oracle
who prophesied to her
on birthday seven

Today
you must take the vow
of holy poetry
to love and serve no other

and the hoot-owl shed
one dark tear for her

      Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel, of German, Irish and Cherokee extraction, was born during the Great Influenza Epidemic of 1918 on December 22nd in Stroud, Oklahoma. She was raised in the region known as the Creek Indian Nation. Little did she know; in eight years time she would begin a life of writing that would eventually mark her place in the annals of American prose. Wilma’s semi-autobiographical poem, The Vocation of Wynona Murray, first appeared in Getting Love Down Right © 2000, Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel.
      The lead poem A Pair of Rivers, atop the previous page, first appeared in A River They Call Merced ©1991, and is also found on a live recording of a poetry reading by Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel, titled Yard Sales.  (back)