Long Blackfoot Poems

Salat Days
by Michael R. Burch 

(dedicated to my grandfather, Paul Ray Burch Sr.)

I remember how my grandfather used to pick poke salat ...
though first, usually, he’d stretch back in the front porch swing,
dangling his long...

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" Damn you, let go my gun! "
The morning hasn't even yawned yet
and a terrible tussle is in my sight,
Drouillard is wrestling his rifle from the hands of this Indian thief
and the Field brothers are...

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The Great Falls of the northern Plains is actually a chain of five seperate waterfalls
varying in height and majesty extending over 12 miles,
they also confirm that the right river was chosen,
we had hoped that the...

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"Just live a little, Hawaiian style!" Quote by Hawaiian Style Band.

On the first day of Christmas, my tutu gave to me,
-- (and...) a-*Ne-ne-Goose-un-der-a-gua-va-tree.
(guava fruits are the best part of their diet--trust me)

On the second day...

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These are poems about war and defenses.



Defenses
by Michael R. Burch

Beyond the silhouettes of trees
stark, naked and defenseless
there stand long rows of sentinels:
these pert white picket fences.

Now whom they guard and how they guard,
the good Lord...

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EPIGRAMS IV

Improve yourself by others' writings, attaining freely what they purchased at the expense of experience.
—Socrates, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

I didn’t mean to love you,
but I did.
Best leave the rest unsaid,
hid-
den
and unbidden.
—Michael R....

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Mayan Poetry Translations

The Receiving of the Flower
excerpt from a Mayan love poem
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Let us sing overflowing with joy
as we observe the Receiving of the Flower.
The lovely maidens beam;
their hearts leap in...

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It has came to my attention John that there was an illegal system in the area, it even wiped out my PC temporarily. I had to do a report.
at first I thought it was you...

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Erasure Poem 
So many fake Indians these days
Elizabeth Warren is one
And according to my DNA results
I am too

But my grand-parents spoke Cherokee my mom claims
And they disappeared into the hills 
She claims

Is the DNA test...

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Let me tell you a story ...

The story of Wolverine is so vast that I would need much more space,
     though, I will tell you what I have gathered about...

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My BROTHERS --the Cherokee ---you may refer to me as cross-breed-- or not.
As an ancestor ----if it’s your aspiration?
My Grandmother----half Cherokee- half Blackfoot----as the old tales were told.
Citizenship with your sovereignty —till she was three—that...

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Twilight Flight by Monty Wright



What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. 
It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. 
It is the little shadow which runs across...

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Apache, the Ndee, "the people" of Arizona and other States
Blackfoot, the Siksika, whose painted red faces we can relate

Cheyenne, the Tsitsistas, meaning relatives of the Cree
Dakota Sioux, the Dakota, meaning little snakes in Ojibwe

Euchee, or...

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Apache, the Ndee, "the people" of Arizona and other States
Blackfoot, the Siksika, whose painted red faces we can relate

Cheyenne, the Tsitsistas, meaning relatives of the Cree
Dakota Sioux, the Dakota, meaning little snakes in Ojibwe

Euchee, or...

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The teeth are dry. 
It is Silken Thomas 
muffling for promises 
among the rats in his straw, 
jostling for a hand, 
once wielding but now 
scratching the toes of power. 

The tongue leather bitten, 
studded...

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Crazy Horse's Naming Vision
by Michael R. Burch

Earthbound,
and yet I now fly
through these clouds that are aimlessly drifting...
so high
that no sound
echoing by
below where the mountains are lifting
the sky
can be heard.

Like a bird,
but not meek,
like a hawk...

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For thousands of years, ice giants were sleeping.
But now, these dense “blue ice” glaciers are weeping.
Warnings that in many ways bear repeating.
Global climate change speeds glaciers’ retreating.

In Alaska and Glacier National Park,
The melting of ancient...

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Blowing up
On the thistledown tail 
Dancing in grooves 
Of Vulcans palm
Printed in a horses ear
Swimming in a fish's gills 
Cleverly caught 
To be spread on butterfly wings
Shouting, “I want the sun”
Til’ our buttress burned ...

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