Story telling is about making relatives

 

The Rush Gatherer, from the series A True Mirror of Chinese and Japanese Poetry, by Katsushika Hokusai, 1834-1835

Joy Harjo, about Leslie Marmon Silko, from Acknowledgements of her book Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: 50 Poems for 50 Years.

Silko taught that storytelling is about making relatives and acknowledging the relationship between earth and sky, between two-legged humans and the rest of human creatures, and between the many kinds of time.  Poetry is about singing it.

I love the idea that story-telling is about "making relatives."  The story-telling is the verb is that creates the relatives.

Also, I love the notion of "acknowledging" the relationship BETWEEN three various things, including different kinds of time.