Long Osage Poems

I am an Outlander
Who lives on a high hill
Overlooking a man-made lake
That once was a rapidly rushing river
Along whose banks the Ozarks Bluff Dwellers and the Osage and then Delaware
Hunted, fished, and created shelter
For their...

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A meadow for Autumn

Forest, I lay me down to rest
upon bed of moss.
 
Eternal sleep immediately overtakes me 
lichen kenning myself 
as Rip Van Winkle 
except being repurposed
as  oldest living species. 

With an estimated...

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Wednesday, September 2021 at 3:20 PM...
eastern standard time Autumn Equinox arrives

That seasonal occasion twill arise
when darkness and light doth bring
equilibrium between night and day
raking leaves will constitute exercise
espied and witnessed by observant earthling
namely me who...

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Figurative paralysis laid waste body electric of mine

This is Spinal tap 
bamboozling, binding, bleeding, bombing...
ripped from every dog eared 
and book marked page
recounting latest ill fated fiasco, 
now peppering my life and hard times
causing quite...

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when eve doth fall upon summers’ end, 
   a hint of splendor bequeathed arose
upon firmament as changed scenery 
   (this third equinox act since new year) bellows
basses loaded and blasted in...

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The last trailing tendril filaments
of moon beams nocturnally trace
fashion an illusory gilded chariot Ark,
whence upon celestial runners,
the approach of dawn's early light
illuminated terrestrial space
which nebulous solar city flanges
revisited since time millennial
hubbub of human race
nsync with...

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As I walk through the valley of the Red Maple trees
I take a look and realize that’s it’s a pioneer species
and that’s just a little bit of knowledge from me
You know i shun Bradford Pears,...

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Prologue
 
Abandoned and in disrepair the mansion 
Is dark now; a story behind every stanchion.
It is an unwitting monument to a way of life,
Since foreclosed through bloody civil strife.

Antebellum

The hush of summer evenings cued the...

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At one time eight different Native America Indian Tribes lived in peace,
In the state of Kansas, sharing buffalo, shared lands with no lease.
The Iowa, Chippewa, Delaware, Kansas, Osage, Pawnee and Kickapoo,
Shared venison, and fresh cool...

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quaffing caustic acidic ale, a prankster did stage
analogous to raging figurative fire of rage 
within my belly – riven asper spinal binding 
   ripped from every book marked page

caw zing quite an ache...

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The word "Cherokee" is believed to be derived from a Choctaw word meaning "Cave People". Another explanation says it came from a Creek word "Chelokee", meaning "People Of A Different Speech".
It was picked up and...

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The old saw "Go West, Young Man" is attributed to Horace Greeley,
But it was coined by a writer from a Terre Haute paper, really!
Horace was agin' westward expansion and was filled with doubt,
So in 1839...

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Aged Osage;
twisting, turning, 
tentacled specter of the soil; 
centuries of thrills, you have seen.

Gnarly old fingers, 
still reach for brother sun’s embrace 
and you share your elation freely.

Stories told in limb and bough, 
are road...

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I wrote this poem for the people of Oklahoma that was in the frozen storm
in Jan.2007.

Please hear us Lord when we say this prayer.
Tell those who need help that you are there.

They have no food...

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It’s always sunny in the city where you feel your brother’s love
Like a shiv that someone’s thrust into your side.
Guess those Quakers let their sourdough turn rancid over time.
Now it’s hard to shovel s**t against...

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I imagine the echo of the once thundering herds,
Before the Bison succumbed to the tallow vats.
I listen for symphonies of the missing songbirds,
That made the Osage foothills their habitat.

The land that was theirs is no...

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Where the Osages'  God  almighty once reigned
The almighty dollar their proud life- blood drained
As man- made arteries pumped out the rich black oil
Making a mockery of their sacred soil
Their native American dream withered...

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We nod into gentleness like genocide
      sleep in flourishing sanity
            through elms sifting epitaphs.
Our sheen of silence on white...

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