Long Shawnee Poems

Absolute deafening silence...

during and after a moderate snowfall
today January 19th, 2024,
within Southeastern Pennsylvania
and elsewhere across the Eastern Seaboard,
whereby blanket of whiteness
muffles sounds of civilization.

I hate a spoiler alert
regarding weather forecasters prediction,
especially when meteorologist
wannabe spouse doth...

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People sometimes tell me the heirlooms given to me hold no value over how my heart feels, but these things have memories, stories of where they've come from that tug at my heart.  They’re...

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How exciting; first appreciable (healthy) snowfall 2024...

within hinterlands of 
Perkiomen Valley Pennsylvania 
occurred January 6th promptly at noon.

Virgin whiteness blankets terrestrial realm
bajillion snowflakes tumble out of sky
atavistic fascination awakened
agog at ice crystals stinging each eye
while...

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ANONYMOUS TRAVELERS

The luminous Southern Cross, had a clear blue sky as a background 
to shine off its splendor majestically in that long ago night.  
The approaching morning was calm and the pleasing breeze would...

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First appreciable (healthy) snowfall 2022 occurred January 28th

Virgin whiteness blankets terrestrial realm
bajillion snowflakes tumble out of sky
atavistic fascination awakened
agog at ice crystals stinging each eye
while I strike open mouthed stance
relishing tasting frozen water molecules.

No matter...

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Anticlimactic mood after February 18th, 2021 snow storm subsided

I hate spoiler alert
regarding weather forecasters prediction,
especially when meteorologist
wannabe spouse doth blurt
out impending blizzard
which never materializes.

Yours truly humbled and enamored
when Mother Nature
singly and/or nsync with old man...

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(for America’s original true Veterans)

Government of Kings
where shall you bide?
Now that the
Great Horned Serpent
has appeared while
Thunderbirds screech
and lament in
desolate skies?

Oh great people of
Our Grandmother!
Amass your island
conjure the Turtle
retreat upon the seas
of your origination.

Oh Yakwawi!
Hairless Bear...

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the stuff legends are made of mysteries from the skies                         ...

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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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A fragment of matted stone breaks surface.
It is already colonized
by moss and fungi factories;
eventually they will churn 
green spawn into rural Ohio towns;
not yet of course, ‘yet’ has to wait
for the rain and the blood...

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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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There was a fire in the sky,
The day Tecumseh fell.
No white man could deny,
They would know his cursed spell.

There was thunder in the spirit realm,
That bellowed out a threat.
No holy book or church house hymn,
Could...

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Mohawk, Mandan, Kikapu, Cree,
Yakoma,Seminole, Crow,Shawnee.
Arapaho, Chippewa and Sioux,
Mystical names to me and you.
Names like Delaware, Fox and Paiute,
Listen to their music on the flute.
Lakota, Macuna, Omulgee, Nes Perce,
Yuma,Nakota,Ossage, Washoe, Hualapai
All names that should never ever...

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When did the arms of Lady Liberty turn inwards
Her torch extinguished; her poem long forgotten?
You have heard me say it often since begotten
That which makes America greatest is her diversity.

As a child, I learned some...

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Here in my suburban acre of Ohio;
I feel the generations,
the hungarians, the irish and germans,
the dutch, the blacks, the shawnee.
We are not a melting pot,
we are birds and critters brought here
by wild, wild winds.
I am...

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Here in my rented acre of Ohio;
I feel the generations,
the hungarians, the irish and germans,
the dutch, the blacks, the shawnee.
We are not a melting pot,
we are birds and critters brought here
by wild, wild winds. 
I...

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Hawkish angels with golden bows
chase away shawnee and wolves.
A sinewy faith built the rough and ready.
We were pleased to claim this land
for Jesus.

Despite the tornadoes,
we continued to raise
Midwest cities
from a leather flogged bible.
We were conceived...

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A scrap of ore breaks surface.
The metallic pebble is already colonized
by moss and fungi factories,
in a millennia rocks will churn
a green spawn into small rural towns.
Fields of new growth
must be planted in microscopic slime.

The Shawnee...

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I would like to pay tribute to those who died
While introducing you to our native pride
We are Cherokee, Iroquois, and Lakota
We are Navajo, Algonquin, and Dakota
Our lands were open and free to roam
But when the...

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A string of scows
lift on a late flux.
Sunset spreading itself
along the crests of far hills.

The Ohio plunges into cooling shadows,
then a shimmering pause
as the water opens its body.

Ripples fall away from the light,
shape-shift into Shawnee...

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A string of scows lift on a late flux.
Sunset spreads itself along the crests of far hills.

The Ohio plunges into cooling shadows,
then a shimmering pause as the water opens its body.

Ripples fall away from the...

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If you lean slightly left
while facing the sewage plant
then that view of Ohio
could be back in the 18th century,
there's even a long cabin
resurrected from somewhere else
and replanted here.

The Wright Brothers palatial home
is now maintained by...

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The unmistakable sound
of a bear crashing through undergrowth.

“You are a Shawnee brave,” a voice says
out of my dark space.

“No I'm not,” I reply panicking
“I am old and fat!”

“Take up your tomahawk
be a man, die well.”...

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Bare,
Yet fair,
None can compare.
To the nude silver branches and barren expanses,
That the cool of winter doth bring.
Unless you equate the way the birds sing,
In the start of the fresh, blooming spring.
Or perhaps the warm air,
Filled...

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South of here, zombie cicadas
chafe heated thighs,
but North of Tippecanoe
Shawnee trails lead into autumn.

September has mottled the forest maples.
We take photographs,
but the green still smothers
scattered red and yellow threads.

You touch a mossy tree trunk,
as if...

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