To carry life’s
complex messages
The structure
must be simple
Like angle iron
at ninety degrees
the weight to never
buckle
A thrusted spear
a hammer punch
direction
short and measured
Effects most dire
with arrows fired
from bows
— most straight delivered
(Chief Joseph Highway: August, 2025)
Categories:
chief joseph, simple,
Form: Rhyme
Somewhere West of where he was,
and East of where he’d been
The mountains called their distant cry,
a pleading heard within
The alpine air, the red-tailed hawk,
their spirits hail his name
To thence return, the past on fire
—his freedom to reclaim
(Chief Joseph Highway: September, 2021)
Categories:
chief joseph, mountains,
Form: Rhyme
Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, born at the close,
defeat your only destiny.
Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain, sometimes the strong
are chosen to fight the hopeless wars.
You began to lose before you rose;
they who called you Joseph
sought the land which held your father's body,
but you would not sell the bones of your father and mother.
Chief Joseph, they followed you a thousand miles.
You left your home,
but they would not let you go.
You fought with the frantic fury of the bush fire.
Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain, they caught you
but forty miles from your goal.
Your people broken, slaughtered, scattered.
Count the children, O Chief Joseph.
Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, they would not kill you.
The heart beats, the spirit dead.
The strong man born to bitter end.
"From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever."
Categories:
chief joseph,
Form: Elegy
"Oh, hear me chiefs, for I am tired and with a sick and sad heart, and from where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever!" - Chief Joseph of the Nez Pierce
The time in which these words were spoken, surely must've been a mournful day; a day showing to each of these Native Americans as a passing marked of great sadness, a sadness unique to each perspective - an end-view of a Peoples reaching eyes, ...eyes found looking back at their ancestral homeland, each having taken in this sight with great beholding, ... as if the imminent future had left out on an open grassy plain, a thousand souls in wait for final sharing of a night's thoughts under a Northen Lights glow. Sadly, for some, the last capture of a memory, this running beauty to its hold would ever show.
Categories:
chief joseph, allegory, day, history, perspective,
Form: Prose Poetry
Respect in uniform
A man with respect
Major Oliver O. Howard
One of the US Armies best
A courageous soldier
With an order to follow
Dis-quell the Indian Wars
So there be peace tomorrow
Born in Maine
His dad died when he was nine
But this little boy
Turned out oh so fine
At nineteen, he graduated
A young man, already well rated
1854 Military pass
This bright young man, 4th in his class
Time advances to the Indian Wars
To do his duties, soldier sworn
To quell the fighting, peace be ours
Chief Joseph and the Indian colors
His task achieved, tho Indian losses
Orders he served, from Washington's bosses
Chief Joseph, from his lands he was moved
To Oklahoma, situation defused
1894 the retirement of he
Major General what he rose to be
Universities and College named in his name
This quite amazing soldier of Military Fame
http://www.thehighlanderspoems.com/native-americans.php
" When i heard about this gentleman, it desired me to write. Unknown to me he has actually
been in the historical background of one of my poems, and an ancestor of one of our poets "
Categories:
chief joseph, cowboy-western, family, history, native
Form: Rhyme
A failed American promise,
Of freedom filled with hope.
To return to his homeland,
Was the center of his scope.
A peaceful Idaho Nation,
Signed a treaty with the U.S.
Being sent to a reservation,
Filled his heart with distress.
In 1904 while still in exile,
He died of a broken heart.
It’s a shame that the U.S.
Did not do their part.
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce,
Didn’t fulfill his life’s endeavor.
He left us with a final statement,
“I will fight no more forever”.
_______________________________________
A tribute to Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Tribe.
Categories:
chief joseph, history, native american
Form: Ekphrasis