Long Chinook Poems

Alaska; the wilderness state, the last frontier:
Where majestic mountains,
Deliver streams into flowing rivers:
Down slopes covered in forests
Of Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock,
That dominates the landscape.
The name Alaska originates
From the Aleut word ‘Aleyska,’
Meaning the ‘mainland’ or...

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The Columbia is a smooth beast that has introduced us to a semi tropic clime
that produces a bewildering humidity even for November
and a panoply of tree types that canopy the mossy turfs
from a sky that...

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T'was the night before Christmas, all children were in bed
Elves were loading the sleigh, for Santa's big night ahead
A heavy fall of fresh snow had now covered the ground
The whole world was hushed, there wasn't...

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If you stick your neck out for a friend, you’re likely to lose your head.
A friend is a potential enemy in disguise as a loving wife just before vowing ties.
Friends are of all kinds but...

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I turned away and faced the crashing white rapids. My
evergreen hunting dress whipped in the wind with my
copper hair.

I took a deep breath and jumped. I felt the spray
before the crushing force of the furious...

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All we eat is elk meat, boiled elk, roasted elk, elk jerky
sometimes fried elk if we get bear or whale oil,
oh, and sometimes elk soup,
for four months we've subsisted exclusively on elk
except for occassional dog...

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fo'c·'sle    /'fohksel/  noun  deriv: forecastle
      1. the forward part of a ship below the deck, traditionally used as the crew's living quarters.
   ...

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I walk an already trodden path...
Uncertain, of future lives that lie ahead

But, in faith I close these earthly Ojibwa eyes
In trill, thus, I hear the old ways in your presence amidst Chinook winds
As harmonic they...

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Born in the mid west, a long time ago
in the sunflower state where the prairie grass grows
she would spend many days, sharing stories and dreams
Tho' my own feet have never been blessed to step near...

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The Long House

Precontact	            Our sky is incense
                 ...

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Fort Clatsop is up and true,
50 feet square, with a smokehouse, pallisades, barracks and two gateways
furnished from the aromatic and reliable wood of the great Fir trees,
we keep busy by scraping elk hides for clothes,...

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Kananaskis is 
four-fifths a line of  haiku
Kananaskis is

With spring’s sudden warmth
serial avalanches thunder
one triggers the next 

Winter’s snow melting 
laughing, leaping, running to 
valley far below

Green slopes banded red
dying lodgepole pine,  memories	
of last...

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The trip was a riot of color,
It brings a myriad of queries,
Fantastic tales of utter darkness,
Views' visible roots were explored. 

Mainsail surges,
pungent froth carried wave tips while,
blast swings moaning openly.

superb mountains,
Convey streams into streaming rivers,
Down...

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The old red barn seems to grow up through the dust and brown
Along the vague dirt road that mars the sage.....

The rhythm played by rain for wait of seeds, still echoes here
Erect and proud, it...

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When the new harvest Moon,
shines in the night sky.
The orange pumpkin fruits,
are ready for pie.
The standing feed corn,
hasn't quite dried.
The warm days recede,
summers passed by.
When the new harvest moon,
shines in the night sky.

When the mid...

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R8nJSe8Jb0

Dreams are made of fairy dust and gold my mom once said
as she tucked me in real tight and kissed my sleepy  head
you will see stars of bright and little angels baking bread
there upon...

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A Little Boy’s gun with a barometric trigger,
showed a Fat Man how to
blot out an Empire’s rising sun.
Proliferation’s need pushed
Sellafield and Kyshtym to trip chasing Manhattan.
Twenty two years later and just
three miles south of Middleton,
failed...

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COLLEVILLE  SUR  MER

In uneasy rest
He faces west.
They all face west to America  -
So far away from this beach,
So very far out of reach.

He no longer feels the chinook
Nor the glance of mother’s...

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THAW     AT    CROWSNEST     PASS  

Huge mountains massed and  cliffs  sheer.  It’s  March
And endless  blue  sky  cold...

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Little lady bug by my window how pretty you look 
with your fragile wings and sweet tiny polka dots  
Fate brought you to me like a great chinook
you landed on my heart, like a...

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Spring charges the air
I feel it; I swear.
A sense of touch that gets felt;
nature is waking
winter’s grip breaking
as snow and ice start to melt.

Geese are flocking north
calling songbirds forth.
Robin red-breasts lead the way;
followed by pink...

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War
Enlist list
Signed sheets
Quick and easy
It's all so cheesy

Come home soon, please
Chinook ride overseas
She sends a letter
I've felt better
Worthless

Mortars
Night raids
Humanitarian aid
A spade's a spade
All this just to get paid

Improvised Explosive Device
Repeating "love will suffice"
Injured soldier
Never colder
Scared

Firefight
White...

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I like talking to you too much
the way you think and dream and dare
I like talking to you too much
drawn like a flame pulls in air

I like talking to you too much
your depth and passion...

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