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Open Poetry #12
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lucky
Senior Member
since 2000-01-17
Posts 1601
Idaho

0 posted 2001-01-23 02:23 PM


there was a time in this land
& the Canada where native dared
ran but wild nobles stood lone against
crooked sky’s with a gleaning just before
the Blackfeet ran it was a time when the
dark jaded forest was to silent to be
read and time showed nought
beginning nor history
had little said
early
Blackfeet
canoed her waters
and walked her forests green
blackfeet like ospreys mind were o’er
flowed in visions and sound of meals life’s
cost many got lost some starved on barren
fields empty they never looked at failure &
what they couldn’t deal they only saw
days passing into rises maybe
if it wasn’t winter they’d

feel a moaning sky and sometimes a
sea though far away across a great divide they’d
see the eastern shores and if their eyes be good saw
a western strand opening a spirit setting a soul to flowin’
there was little time to think pulse was movin' on yet still
stars came stealin' bright as days closing nights look
‘cross the prairie loved ones lie there sleeping
songs of great hunters sung o'er the
summits standing on tribal
council traditions
their/our
spirits are all

buried in those soils with our
tears and toils but theirs was the times in
this land though our dead ones too lie a sleepin’
but it seem so unreal are they really forsaken lost
to something foreign and tell me where is the
wall... bearing my brothers token


[This message has been edited by lucky (edited 01-23-2001).]

© Copyright 2001 Dale W. Gwaltney - All Rights Reserved
AniKay83
Member
since 2000-06-28
Posts 388
Missing Since 1999
1 posted 2001-01-23 02:25 PM


Beautiful story, I love the way you wrote this.

"Hearts will become practical when they make them unbreakable"
~The Wizard of Oz
Much love all,
Krissie


lucky
Senior Member
since 2000-01-17
Posts 1601
Idaho
2 posted 2001-01-23 03:01 PM


Thanks AniKay'

My grandmother was full blooded Cherokee but on the other side a father part blackfoot, well I turned out a poet of sorts so many times forgot. Between the psalms my mother told and the greatness of the blackfoots proud, the memories... Well... it's my mothers side I share tho I do love my dad's soundness... and they were together for fifty years... And that in itself says alot...
~

[This message has been edited by lucky (edited 01-23-2001).]

Marge Tindal
Deputy Moderator 5 ToursDeputy Moderator 1 TourDeputy Moderator 1 TourDeputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Empyrean
since 1999-11-06
Posts 42384
Florida's Foreverly Shores
3 posted 2001-01-23 03:46 PM


Lucky~
Oh, my sweet and wonderful friend -
how you have touched the heart of this little Cherokee, and many others.

'and tell me where is the
wall... bearing my brothers token'


It is written in the history of all who look beyond …
circling in the smoke blown by the four winds of the earth,
hanging in the constellation of the Seven Nations …
visioned in the quest of ancient spirits …
buried in the red clay along the Trail …
but, mostly my friend … it is written in the hearts of all
who share the heritage –

Their Wall … Our Hearts

How I bless you for this tenderly rendered tribute …
May all who read it … come to know and understand
The coming together of all spirits into the Spirit Of ONE

I love you, brother ... peace be.
~*Marge*~



~*The pen of the poet never runs out of ink, as long as we breathe.*~
noles1@totcon.com


LoveBug
Deputy Moderator 5 Tours
Moderator
Member Elite
since 2000-01-08
Posts 4697

4 posted 2001-01-23 03:58 PM


"our spirits are all buried in those soils with our tears and toils"

Lucky, this really touched me. One set of my great-grandparents were Cherokee, and I am always saddened when I think of all of our ancestors who walked that Trail of Tears. Thank you for awakening the ancestors once more.


"Where there is great love there are always miracles" -Cather
"Love heals everything, and love is all there is"- Zukav



Marsha
Deputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Rara Avis
since 2000-07-10
Posts 7423
Maidstone Kent England
5 posted 2001-01-23 05:46 PM


Lucky, this is utterly wonderful, it really and truly touched me, I could really connect with this.
Absolutely a brilliant piece from you,
Take care
                 Mushy


Take back the hope you gave,- I claim
Only a memory of the same
Robert Browning



kaile
Deputy Moderator 1 TourDeputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Ascendant
since 2000-02-06
Posts 5146
singapore
6 posted 2001-01-23 07:58 PM


i told you before, lucky, how much i adore your unique format...well i will say this again and add that that was a beautiful story i read.thanx for sharing..
Martie
Moderator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-09-21
Posts 28049
California
7 posted 2001-01-23 09:23 PM


Dale--You and Marge are my brother and sister of heart.
lucky
Senior Member
since 2000-01-17
Posts 1601
Idaho
8 posted 2001-01-23 11:31 PM


Well, well, well my friends,

I got home to hear RJ tell me I got a few replies... I have to tell you it was the highlight of this day... (bad day) I want to thank you all so much. I had been writing Marge and Martie for some time about my life and times. Last week or so I needed a shoulder and I sent my troubled health problems o'er to Marge. She sent me a way to escape and ease my troubled mind. It was at that time I began puting this piece together as I didn't know what to send her... and when I had finished it... I thought you all should share at least some part in it. And Martie, you shy little thing... you adopted me remember and your sure to be under the spirits wing. Heart is what it's all about and yours has to be big as Texas and as long as Alberta's prairie sky. And you both write it well... yeah, that's right... very very well...

Love you all, dale

.

tracie66
Member Elite
since 2000-01-18
Posts 4713
Australia
9 posted 2001-01-23 11:39 PM


Dale
Wonderful tribute, Images most spectacular....thanks for sharing this with us, was a wonderful read  
Tracie~


Love is the life of the soul...
It is the harmony of the universe


Saunni
Senior Member
since 2000-07-11
Posts 1777
West Virginia
10 posted 2001-01-24 12:03 PM


This is magnificent! Truly is! What a story. Thanks.

Sauni


Sauni :)
Have you ever known the color grey when the nighttime finds you weak
I have, I've walked that road each time; that's where my angel sleeps

Rosebud1229
Senior Member
since 2000-04-05
Posts 1813
North Carolina
11 posted 2001-01-24 12:11 PM


This has a beauty in it, that you are sharing right now . Thank you for sharing.
Rosemary J. Gwaltney
Senior Member
since 1999-08-26
Posts 997
northern mountains, Idaho
12 posted 2001-01-24 12:18 PM


I must confess, there isn’t a scrap of Indian in me, but my heart is with them.  I love this poem!

Not only is my husband lucky, part Indian, but I have a personal history as well.  Dare I take up space to share a bit?

In the early sixties, I spent an important part of my teen-age-hood in Northern British Columbia, near a tiny, impoverished village called Kitsegukla.  The nearest town was 25 miles away. We were 90 miles from Alaska as the crow flies.

Even in 130 degree sun, in the mid-summer, covered with vicious Skeena River mosquitoes (which never bit the Natives!!), we could look up and see those snow covered peaks.  In the winter, with the wind-chill factor, it could get to 70 below.  (Hang up diapers, they freeze instantly.  Bring them in, stand them in a row by the wood stove, and the cold is so dry that when they thaw, they flop to the floor, dry!)

My relatives shot a moose two different winters in their own yard, feeding our whole family all winter.  (No store to get to for months on end.  Only so many kinds of vegetables you can store in a two-story down root cellar!  And try to find the root cellar door in the ground under the snow in the middle of the meadow!)

I lived with my relatives who were missionaries there to the natives.  I loved the natives, and they loved me, especially the beautiful children, with their thick dark hair; who had never seen long blonde hair before, and would follow me around, feeling it and smiling.

We didn’t need speech, though we taught each other a few words.  We had endless smiles and hugs.  We could play, and they showed me many things, without the need for speech.  I could probably write a book about those times.

My cousin was a nurse, and she was very important on many occasions when medical help was needed - a difficult birth - a large cut needing stitching, etc., when the road was impossible.  

Though I didn’t have enough time to learn to speak their language, Gitksan, a dialect of the Tsimshian, I learned much of their beliefs, their ways of life, and what was important to them.  I will miss them always.

So, my dear husband, forgive my white skin!  (I know you do!)  My heart is with the natives, wherever they live, and the ones who suffered so, and died, in all the places that dreadful cruelty happened.  Thanks for writing this poignant piece.

.


The spiritual wind that holds survivors aloft, plants the seeds from which bloom new hope ... R.J.G.


lucky
Senior Member
since 2000-01-17
Posts 1601
Idaho
13 posted 2001-01-24 01:08 AM


Rosemary,

I can't begin to tell you how I missed you when you were there and I was here feeling gone, so alone. One mile or a thousand... all I had was your letters. What a life it has been. Sure is nice to be together!

Your husband, dale


[This message has been edited by lucky (edited 01-24-2001).]

hoot_owl_rn
Member Patricius
since 1999-07-05
Posts 10750
Glen Hope, PA USA
14 posted 2001-01-24 09:43 AM


YES!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow what a tribute and the last lines...awesome!!

Wilfred Yeats
Member Elite
since 2000-08-04
Posts 2704
Wilmington, Delaware
15 posted 2001-01-24 11:08 AM


Dale - you took me back to my days of trudging Canadian wilderness - when I was a 'Cree' in boy's camp in Algonquin park.

but more to a later year near Manitoba  east of Winnipeg - seeing the remains of an Indian village  - struck down by tubeculosis,  all that remained  was the rusted treadle of a sewing machine.

Need I say you 'got to me'?  

emmalouise
Junior Member
since 2000-06-04
Posts 26

16 posted 2001-01-24 11:15 AM


This is haunting.  Thnak you for sharing this with us.

Best,
emma

lucky
Senior Member
since 2000-01-17
Posts 1601
Idaho
17 posted 2001-01-25 10:43 AM


tracie thank you -
Saunni Thanks too you also.

Rosebud Thank you for your sharing.

Rosemary J. Gwaltney So what the Scoots ain’t all that bad... just ask me..!

hoot_owl_rn

Ruth... you surprized me... I didn’t know you knew the word “awesome” hay girl it’s getting down to hours now how you feeling (((hugs))) RJ shared the E with me... I’ll get one off ASAP maybe I shouldn’t say that... This month is full of doctor and hospital appts. Not for the kids this time... It’s me... my body seems to be going wacko... Nothing new to you.

Bill

Haven’t seen you in a while... But I know your a reader and your probably trudging back through your days in the Canadian wilderness... I wonder if you’ll write something... That’s nuts... you probably already have. That was a very poignant remark about the tubeculosis seeing we brought it to them... Yeah you got me too... I can’t remember everything thanks for the reminder my friend...


emma

Thank you for the reading... Your new  here I guess... I’ll have to look for your works.

I love you all and send my best Valentines wishes...

dale

suthern
Deputy Moderator 1 TourDeputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Seraphic
since 1999-07-29
Posts 20723
Louisiana
18 posted 2001-01-29 12:15 PM


Wonderful poem... the last question is heartbreaking and haunting. *S*

I wish you the best with your health problems, Dale... my thoughts and prayers are with you.

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