Tag Archives: Aboriginal

I AM A PELICAN

Audio Recordings, Environment, Nature / tagged , , , , , / / by

I AM A PELICAN

I have flown over the dinosaurs dying
through the ash of the meteors crashing

I have swam in the ice floes melting
I have eaten the first fish walking

I have felt the poles a shifting
in the magnets in my head

I have seen the white man and the red
I have seen the old wives dead

I have felt the pull of the settlers need
and tasted the poisons of their greed

I have heard the earth a groaning
I have felt the earth in pain

I have seen the Rainbow Warriors
dance the vision back again

And I fly and swim and wait
and pray they’re not too late

THE PELICAN PROJECT

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged , , , , , / / by

THE PELICAN PROJECT

In July 2000 New Dance Horizons in Regina
Saskatchewan put together a presentation for
“Dance and the Child International”

It consisted of dance, song and poetry
performed by about thirty young people
many from Canada’s “First Nations”

I had the privilege of coaching and guiding
them as they wrote their own poems

Following are some poems that I wrote
for samples of metaphor, and for the awe and
respect I felt for their talent and their courage

Also, I was totally star struck by the grace and
beauty of Robin, the director and dance
instructor who goes around quoting Neruda
and holds my disowned love of movement
so wrote poems for and about her as well

SHAMAN’S HEART

Audio Recordings / tagged , , , , / / by

SHAMAN’S HEART

Two centuries back I look down at legs
covered with buckskin white as whitest sand

In the valley below are the tepees

I go to my home
my wife rises to greet me
I speak her name
like water laughing over small stones

Feel full and more with a love for her
as warm as the sumer dawn
strong as my manhood rising

I am a chief and the son of a chief
not brave enough to deny
the life of a brave

Though Shaman at heart
not Shaman enough to break
the heart or the will of my father

I hang by my flesh at a sundance
and lead the young men to war

Say goodbye to my wife and babe in her arms
ride off to the folly of a raid with no cause

As spirit rises from body
my enemies honour my courage
cut my heart from my chest and eat it

Neither friend – nor foe – nor father know
it is not the heart of a brave

DANCING THE DREAMING

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DANCING THE DREAMING

Aborigines on an Austin stage
Dancing the dreaming

But something’s wrong

They dance in stage lines not sacred circles
Men and women dancing together
Even I know that’s not how they did it

My Aussie friend points out that they have
no scars of initiation

Drug store cowboys
in five and dime dream time

The phoniness bothers me for quite a while
They are not really doing the sacred songs
They probably don’t even know the sacred songs

Of course if they did they wouldn’t be singing
them for us

On a Texas stage
in five and dime dream time

And yet there is something happening
below the surface
that starts to pull me in

The didgeree-do is made from a real tree
The circular breathing to blow it is there
strong and free

Something real is rising through it all
Something I don’t understand
Something they don’t even understand

If you listen real close you can hear it
below and through and beyond it all

Fifty thousand years of DNA singing

PICTURE TAKING

Audio Recordings, Personal Growth, Relationships / tagged , , / / by

PICTURE TAKING

The simple people of the earth
do not like to have their pictures taken
They say it captures them
and takes away their souls

If you’ve been with those you love
who still can see you only as you were
And for their own good reasons
need to keep you there
While your every urge of
every breath says grow

Then you’ll know
what the simple people know

EAGLE ON THE MOON

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EAGLE ON THE MOON

When the Eagle lands on the moon
the Indian will come back
into his power

When the mother is in pain
the children who never forgot
will remind

They will have the medicine
to heal her wounds
They will sit with her while
strength returns

And the children who forgot
will remember

and bring flowers

OLD WIVES LAKE MASSACRE

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry / tagged , , , , , / / by

OLD WIVES LAKE MASSACRE – THE LEGEND

About a hundred and fifty or two hundred years ago, in what is now south west Saskatchewan, a band of Cree camping on the shore of a prairie lake were surrounded by a much larger band of Blackfoot warriors.

In order to save the lives of the young and strong, they slipped out under cover of darkness while the old and infirm stayed behind to keep the fires burning and keep up the appearance of an occupied camp.

When the Blackfoot attacked the next morning they were furious at having been tricked in this way and massacred all of the remaining inhabitants of the camp including all the old wives.

This unusual and powerful occurrence is remembered to this day in the name of the lake

I grew up and ranched along its shores.

OLD WIVES LAKE MASSACRE – THE POEM

I have eaten the beef
that ate the grass
that grew on your unmarked graves

And the sadness I sing, I sing for you
for all sadness is one sadness
all pain one pain
and all treachery one treachery

Many have eaten of the buffalo and the beef
They wake in the night
and do not know why they are sad

The Legend

The Poem