»
Archives
»
Open Poetry #43
»
The Trail Of Wild Horses
| Open Poetry #43 |
|
The Trail Of Wild Horses |
|
|
ethome Member Patricius
since 2000-05-14
Posts 11858New Brunswick Canada 
|
On a cool night in October, when the thought worms weave and crawl I was dealing with my anger, I was hiding from my faults. And my soul was running rancid, feeling kind of bleak, So I looked out through my window, past the day lacking peace, and I fell into a liquidness and nursed my inner child I was searching for some righteousness, I'd been searching for awhile. Then I heard a song Arrochar, an Indian through my glass The story of a gallant chief whose days were long since past. His words were growing louder now, my eyes began to stray. My muse was breathing harder now, as the daylight flew away A troop hard riding, bluecoat boys, came in upon the scene Their Captain barking orders loud, with dust clouds billowing. Then I stroked my whiskered chin a bit, and drank in the sky's ink When you're out there in that wonder, you just can't refuse to think. I was floating through a timeless glass, up to the spirit of hearts I was getting close to reasons shared, somewhere inside the stars. And then a smiling maiden's eyes hypnotized my source She laughed lightly on my ears, part of the music score. Then I heard the call of Arrochar, I soared outside of me I was blithesome in that distant land, within my summary peace. The warrior chief sang his song, "Here in the land of Arrochar, I can see that it's too late to grace your earth with spirit care in a world so full of waste. Now the future's headed nowhere and there's no going back to the golden dawns and sunlit air where nature's breath was vast. You're off the trail of wild horses in your automobiles and planes and your synthetic hope is phony while your greed is cursed with pain." Then I got to feeling empty, when the Captain killed this chief And I cried removed from yesterday, but still searching for that peace Off the trail of wild horses I drifted back into the smog on the last road with my fellow man and I was feeling lost. © Eric True IF YOU HAVE TO JUDGE SOMEONE DO IT ON THE SIDE OF MERCY AND LET TIME SEASON THE RESULTS. |
||
| © Copyright 2008 Eric Lewis True - All Rights Reserved | |||
Marge Tindal 
since 1999-11-06
Posts 42384Florida's Foreverly Shores |
EricTrue~ 'So I looked out through my window, past the day lacking peace, and I fell into a liquidness and nursed my inner child' What an absolutely tender lead-in to your thoughts~ Such gracious thoughts that touch the inner child in all of us~ WONDERFULLY DONE kind poet~  *Huglets*  ~*Marge*~ ~*The sound of a kiss is not as strong as that of a cannon, but it's echo endures much longer*~ |
||
|
Robert E. Jordan Member Rara Avis
since 2008-01-25
Posts 8541Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
Yo Eric, This is a rather romantic tale of the old west. It’s well written. Bobby |
||
|
Midnitesun
since 2001-05-18
Posts 28647Gaia |
"Now the future's headed nowhere and there's no going back to the golden dawns and sunlit air where nature's breath was vast. You're off the trail of wild horses in your automobiles and planes and your synthetic hope is phony while your greed is cursed with pain." Very profoundly put, Eric, and sadly, true. |
||
|
ethome Member Patricius
since 2000-05-14
Posts 11858New Brunswick Canada |
Hey Marge! Long time no read your wonderful expressive graphic pen....I have truly missed it. Thanks for dropping in my dear Indian maiden! Eric |
||
|
ethome Member Patricius
since 2000-05-14
Posts 11858New Brunswick Canada |
Bobby & Midnite thanks so much for the read and the comments, and the positive input. Eric |
||
|
Marc-Andre Senior Member
since 2008-12-07
Posts 501 |
Eric, this is interesting, highly evocative and well-crafted. In one word: impressive. Your forum name is one which I only click after preparing myself a good cup of creamy coffee  Do you read Poe? That could eventually be interesting sport to open a thread where we all guess who our fellow poets read Mark |
||
|
Mark Bohannan Member Rara Avis
since 2000-06-21
Posts 7269In the winds of Cherokee song |
Eric, you already know the passion I share with you along these lines and you have penned some very impactful lines in this piece. Your words stirred many emotions in me and reminded me of something I have said so many times and will until the day I pass on so I will just say I loved the story, the format, and of course the heart you put into it and leave you with some words I know you will be able to relate to. -------------------------------------------- Shadows Of Despair Fire burning deep...the eyes of tradition hold true Leaving the burdens of history...painted in the soil Yellow haze of sorrow...gives way to morning blue Weeping for the sadness...of forgotten legend's toil Once proud as a nation...in combined forces of life Spirits shrill to the music...dancing in their blood Forces of neglect...raining on the measure of strife Seeking out the innocence...to surge within a flood Bloodlines forever lost...as desires refuse to wait Freedom taken from birth...locked away in fright Ancestory spoiled...as white man battles his hate Tradition bowing to death...escaping in the night Shadows of despair...swallow the native tongue Praise of nature shaken...taken from the dream Songs of morning hunt...no longer being sung Pride of this nation...shall reign again supreme Faith walking once more...with all battles fought Breathing life anew...to the promise of this land Spirits rise to challenge...swirl within a thought Native blood still flows...within a grain of sand Dreams arrive once more...singing in the breeze Resting on a wing...in the eagle's maiden flight Peace resides once more...in shadows of the trees As dreams come to life...in the taking of the night Mark Bohannan -------------------------------------------- May you be blessed always with life's passion as deep as your passion is for life itself. |
||
|
WolfHeart Junior Member
since 2008-12-17
Posts 23Oregon, USA |
This is intense and romantic - tells stories of endings and heartaches. You have written an epic poem here. It has energy, rhythm and rhyme that work together to create a shining gem. I really liked this very much. "Love the unloveable; they need it most of all." |
||
|
ethome Member Patricius
since 2000-05-14
Posts 11858New Brunswick Canada |
Marc Thanks for the visit and taking the time to comment. I hope you enjoyed the cup. I appreciate the positive input and am glad you were able to relate to this. Eric Mark B That's a beautiful post you have placed here and I'm with you all the way. Wonderful structure and strength of points. So much guilt and no way to ever fix it all. I just watched the old HBO "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee" as you know it's all based on a true story and it makes one want to cry. This history makes one ashamed to be descendants of our early fathers. Initially, many of the Europeans who first arrived in the American Northeast were met with kindness and cooperation from the natives. One account says: “Without the aid of the Powhatans, the British settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English colony in the New World, would not have lasted through its first terrible winter of 1607-08. Similarly, the Pilgrim colony at Plymouth, Massachusetts, might have failed except for help from the Wampanoags.” Some natives showed the immigrants how to fertilize the soil and grow crops. And how successful would the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-06—to find a practical transportation link between the Louisiana Territory and what was called the Oregon Country—have been without the help and intervention of the Shoshone woman Sacagawea? She was their “token of peace” when they came face-to-face with Indians. When the American Civil War (1861-65) broke out, it drew soldiers away from Navajo country in the Southwest. The Navajo took advantage of this respite to attack American and Mexican settlements in the Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico territory. The government sent in Colonel Kit Carson and his New Mexico Volunteers to suppress the Navajo and to move them to a reservation on a barren strip of land called Bosque Redondo. Carson pursued a scorched-earth policy to starve and drive the Navajo out of the awesome Canyon de Chelly, in northeastern Arizona. He even destroyed more than 5,000 peach trees. Carson gathered together some 8,000 people and forced them to take the “Long Walk” of about 300 miles to the Bosque Redondo detention camp at Fort Sumner, New Mexico. A report says: “The weather was bitterly cold, and many of the ill-clad, underfed exiles died along the way.” The conditions at the reservation were terrible. The Navajo had to gouge out holes in the ground in an effort to find refuge. In 1868, after realizing its crass blunder, the government granted the Navajo 3.5 million acres of their ancestral homeland in Arizona and New Mexico. They went back, but what a price they had been forced to pay! Between 1820 and 1845, tens of thousands of Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creeks, and Seminoles were driven from their lands in the Southeast and forced to march westward, beyond the Mississippi River, to what is now Oklahoma, hundreds of miles away. In cruel winter conditions, many died. The forced march westward became infamous as the Trail of Tears. The injustices committed against Native Americans are further confirmed by the words of the American general George Crook, who had hunted down the Sioux and the Cheyenne in the north. He said: “The Indians’ side of the case is rarely ever heard. . . . Then when the [Indian] outbreak does come public attention is turned to the Indians, their crimes and atrocities are alone condemned, while the persons whose injustice has driven them to this course escape scot-free . . . No one knows this fact better than the Indian, therefore he is excusable in seeing no justice in a government which only punishes him, while it allows the white man to plunder him as he pleases.”—Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Where are all these beautiful people now? Kutenai Spokan Nez Perce Shoshone Klamath Northern Paiute Miwok Yokuts Serrano Mohave Papago Blackfoot Flathead Crow Ute Hopi Navajo Jicarilla Apache Mescalero Lipan Plains Cree Assiniboin Hidatsa Mandan Arikara Teton Cheyenne Sioux Yankton Pawnee Arapaho Oto Kansa Kiowa Comanche Wichita Tonkawa Atakapa Yanktonai Santee Iowa Missouri Osage Quapaw Caddo Choctaw Ojibwa Sauk Fox Kickapoo Miami Illinois Chickasaw Alabama Ottawa Potawatomi Erie Shawnee Cherokee Catawba Creek Timucua Algonquian Huron Iroquois Susquehanna Delaware Powhatan Tuscarora Micmac Malecite Abnaki Sokoki Massachuset Wampanoag Narragansett Mohegan Montauk |
||
|
ethome Member Patricius
since 2000-05-14
Posts 11858New Brunswick Canada |
Thank you Wolfhart Those are very kind words and I'm glad you were able to appreciate this piece. Eric |
||
|
suthern
since 1999-07-29
Posts 20723Louisiana |
This is one of your very best... and that's saying quite a lot!!! In fact... I think it will be my last read today... I want to take your words with me. |
||
|
ethome Member Patricius
since 2000-05-14
Posts 11858New Brunswick Canada |
That you Suthern for that fine compliment and for the visit. I always look forward to your visits. Eric |
||
|
|
⇧ top of page ⇧ |
|
| All times are ET (US). All dates are in Year-Month-Day format. | ||
