Indian Returned Bowed Head

On verso, "By C.F. Lovato, Silo Star Rt. 72, Pina Blanca, N.M. 87041"

"I bow my head
I wish myself back to the beginning
Back to the hills and plains - Back to the good days
The days the earth held me to its breast
The days when the days were days - nights were nights
Now I walk amidst the sounds of sirens and broken glass
Tears blending with the stench of unswept streets and humid alleys
The many dark stairs - the long hours of wait for night
Self-made illusions my only comfort and relief
Unwanted yet welcomed intrutions (sic) into sanity
Bent lights - warped dreams - neon feelings
Thoughts wrapped in cool silk and warm velvets
Paving my own way street downward
I feel myself falling - to meet me - a concrete bed
The shuffling of feet - unwanted stares
A tear falls - with it some pride - some dignity"

Clearly a very special man wrote this poem. Wishing I had known him.

(1937-1987 Santo Domingo) Charles Lovato was a painter, ceramist, sculptor, poet and jeweler who learned art by helping his grandmother, potter Monica Silva, decorate her pottery.

This artist was known for incorporating traditional Pueblo images like the sun, mountains and the plants of the Rio Grande Valley. Lovato was an innovator in jewelry design combining gold and turquoise with olive shell, white clamshell, sugilite, coral and lapis lazuli.