Best Dakota Poems

Of course on this night we are supposed to be asleep so Santa 
could come, but we hadn't been home from Midnight Mass very long, and the 
invigorating cold was not conducive to sleep.  Even the hot chocolate did not do 
much to help...

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In 1957 I took my teaching certificate back to the land of my mother.  
She was raised on a cattle ranch in the north central area of Nebraska.  The 
famous Sand Hills.  It was there I found my cowboy and we ranched...

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Dakota Contest

I was alone until I brought you home,
Just a pup who loved to chew on my shoes.
You've given me the sweetest love I've known.
Blue husky eyes keep vigil when I snooze,
Your gay devotion keeps me from the blues.

The years have passed too quickly, now...

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The location of the Spring Creek School was on a flat, nestled 
between the cliff on the north and the Little White River on the south.  The river 
flowed in from the northwest, circled to the south of the school about a quarter 
mile...

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There were seven Indian Government schools.  All built alike.  The 
one I'm writing about is Spring Creek.  He Dog, Soldier Creek and White River, 
Grass Mountain, Two Kettle, and Black Pipe were the other schools.  The 
Headquarters for these schools was...

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The surrounding grounds were prairie grasses and brush.  Trees were 
scattered along the west boundary while the eastern area was furnished with a 
heavier growth of various kinds of trees.  Willows and buffalo berry bushes lined 
the bank.  If you were so...

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There’s a soft glimmer of day on the horizon
As a vanquished sun is swept away by dusk’s dark flow
With a slender slip of a cloud stretched North to the South
That floats on the sweetness, the texture of marmalade glow.

Dark clouds above me are still catching...

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good ol’ backwards North Dakota

wouldn’t want to be a woman in
North Dakota,
cause’ choice just ain’t happenin’ there.

nah,
if you’re a woman who gets raped in good ol’
backwards
North Dakota,
since they just shut down the last abortion 
clinic, 
all those bible thumping,
christ screaming, pro-lifers,
will be telling you to...

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the home of the brave
indian caves,exploring time
lets go.we can walk...

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....happening a few hours north and west of where I live in Minneapolis


Bulldozers pushed earth into mounded walls all along the watchtower. 

Wild Sunflowers, roots exposed, gasped for life, uncomfortablysideways, faces driven into 

mud.Stun-gun wires, the few that escaped the eyes of the cleaners, barbed...

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My brother and I walk the south pasture on an early spring day,
The warmth of spring slowly melting, the cold of winter away.
The golds of old growth are broken by the green of new,
And we are drifting in dreams, though we have work to do.
Gathering...

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Earlier than usual, for the pigs have broken free from their pen,
We are allowed to quit the milking because someone must get them.
The excitement of getting to be with her sets us to a run
But when we discover the pigs, we know that it is...

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In my early teens (late 60's)
I remember it all
began
in my mind

Dad was driving us into
downtown Minneapolis
for church I think,

up ahead, a block or so,
the bob-lights on top of
2 cop cars was twirlin'
and  speakers were loopin'
that open-sore noise

then it went silent

but what caught our eyes
was,...

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wide open spaces
plenty of place's to be
plenty to eat too...

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Mary laid her aces down
     hoping they would be enough,
Had placed her world on the line
     in-between her precious "stuff".

She'd worked in her parents fields,
     walked to school when times were tough,
Never had...

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