Our first poem is by Black Elk. He was a famous spiritual leader of the Oglala Lakota Native American tribe. He took part in two famous battles against American troops during the late eighteen hundreds. At the end of his life, he told about a number of his tribe's ceremonies and ideas about life. Among these was the poem called "Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle."

Everything the Power of the World does
is done in a circle. The sky is round,
and I have heard that the earth is round
like a ball, and so are all the stars.
The wind, in its greatest power, whirls.