New Year's Day

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.
Birds make their nests in circles,
for theirs is the same religion as ours.
The sun comes forth and goes down again
in a circle. The moon does the same,
and both are round. Even the seasons
form a great circle in their changing,
and always come back again to where
they were. The life of a man is a circle
from childhood to childhood, and so it is
in everything where power moves.
Our teepees were round
like the nests of birds,
and these were always set in a circle,
the nation's hoop, a nest of many nests,
where the Great Spirit meant for us
to hatch our children.

Black Elk, "Black Elk Speak