Kachina Dolls

Here’s the first poem from my index card boxes for poems that start with the letter K:

kachina dolls

on a sunny sidewalk

distant thunder

I wrote this poem on 16 September 2017 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, while attending that year’s Haiku North America conference. It was the first verse in “Still Santa Fe,” a city-focused rengay I wrote with Robin Palley and Dave Russo. We submitted our collaboration to Frogpond, where it was published in the autumn of 2022. It’s been a pleasure to write rengay focused on many cities of the world, and it was easy to focus on Santa Fe while visiting this energetic and creative city. The verse itself presents the image of Hopi dolls on a downtown sidewalk where an indigenous vendor is offering brightly painted wares to tourists. The mention of thunder is not happenstance, nor as ominous as it might at first seem. Rather, kachina spirits visit Hopi villages to bring rain for each year’s harvest. These immortal beings, represented by the dolls, are benevolent seasonal helpers. They also represent deities and deceased ancestors, and bring gifts for children.

—21 May 2025 (previously unpublished)