LAKE LOUISE TO JASPER
Poet struck dumb
by the folly of throwing
a word against a mountain
Tag Archives: Poetry
PELICAN PROJECT SALUTE
PELICAN PROJECT SALUTE
You are the pelican warriors
You are the pelicans who do not run away
you are the pelicans that stay and fight
you are the pelicans that defend your nests
you are the pelicans that defend your tribe
You are the pelicans
who fly from your homes to find a new lake
You are the pelicans
brave enough to fly near people
(it can be dangerous to fly near people)
You are the pelicans
brave enough to fly through your fears
You are the pelicans
who know some people are your friends
who know some people need your gifts
You are the pelicans
who teach pelicans and people
how to care for their young
how to live for their tribe
How to fly and dance and swim
and fish together again
I dip my ink tipped wing
in praise of you
THE PELICAN PROJECT
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
JOHN HAWK
JOHN HAWK
John Hawk came down
out of Kansas – moving fast
Black Hair and feather flying
Bare feet grip the floor
as
he breaks from the crowd
Seize the mic seize the hearts
seize the minds
Look out world
there’s a warrior out there
A warrior rearmed
with the weapon of words
ERIK BLOMBERG
ERIK BLOMBERG
“That one might be translated into light and song”
– Erik Blomberg
And yet the fear, the fear
always the fear that we
may loose something
in the translation
OH TO NERUDA
OH TO NERUDA
Oh Pablo you rise up
from a land, long as a woman’s back
And you have loved your land
as you would love a woman
as you have loved women as you loved
your land
Every rock and shoal of their coastlines
every mood of their tides
You have caressed them
with your mind and your heart
and your hands
And have received the treasures
that must
always rise up
from their endless depths
to meet such a touch
SEEDS
SEEDS
(or Austin International Poetry Festival)
Birds seed lakes
flying with fish roe
between each muddy toe
Spiking
each pond with pike
and smaller fish that pike like
The poets from England were here last year
including Jay, and bearded imp John Row
carrying seeds between each muddy toe
POETS PILOTS AND COWBOYS
POETS PILOTS AND COWBOYS
A poet will try to dissect the world
and he’ll try to show you each part
and he’ll write it all down with a pen
that he’s dipped in an old carin’ heart
While pilots have the eyes of a hawk
and a strut in the way that they walk
and they give all that’s in them to give
and they live every moment they live
And most cowboys are gentle not loud
and they’re not all that good in a crowd
and they talk like they’re about half asleep
but what they know boys and girls
they know deep
MONA LISA
MONA LISA
I’m so thankful you were there
like a Mona Lisa fair
To show me things I’d never see
and to model for my poetry
Which is not to compare
the artist or the style
But only to confirm again
the value of a smile
FOR THE POETRY
FOR THE POETRY
The ups and downs of loving you
may grind me up before we’re through
And my friends see a victim, namely me
but then again it just might be
that I’m only in it
for the poetry