The white man stole their land
now the red man has the blues
the white man sold their families
and the black man's still ill-used
the white man shot the American buffalo
now the red man sings the blues
the white man put their people in chains
and the black man's grief accrues
the white house is to blame
the Government just the same
the white man broke the treaty
now the red man feels the blues
the white man did the dirty
and the black man he's abused
the white man has no conscience
but the red man has the blues
no the white man does not care
tho' the black man's overdue
the white house is to blame
the Government it is too
Categories:
red man, america, animal, death, how
Form: Rhyme
Where have all the bison gone
shot by Sharps shooters nearly every one
where have all the shooters gone
done away by Indians more than some
the red man revered the buffalo
of Manitou's abundance living proof
to the white who sent them
to the not-so-happy-hunting grounds
a gold mine on the hoof
the paleface ways in olden days long gone
were somewhat less than perfect
and should be frowned upon
to soldiers bison were target practice
indigenous people to quell
while hunters killed for the hides
by 1884 the Black Hills buffalo death knell
lies were spoken treaties broken
but revenge was none too soon at hand
Sioux Cheyenne Arapaho attacked
and briefly turned the tide
on what was their rightful land
beside the Little Bighorn
one frightful day at Custer's last stand
Categories:
red man, animal, death, environment,
Form: Rhyme
The cowboys always won
The Indians always lost
I yearned to see a cowboy
with an arrow through his chest
But then I read a story 'bout
a cowboy who'd been scalped
Promised to myself, I said
Now I'd see a red man dead
Put on two toy store holsters
Courage blazing from their guns
Bagged me the bony remnants
Of a graveyard skeleton
Blood-curdling Scene ~
Happy Halloween!
Categories:
red man, conflict, fantasy, humor, murder,
Form: Rhyme
Moonshine, diesel fumes, and chicken wire.
Laundry hangin’ on the line.
Bible open to the Book of Job.
Backyard thick with prickly pine.
Jacket pocket full of Red Man dip.
Work boots laced with leather thongs.
Wedding portrait on the mantel piece.
Shotgun right where it belongs.
Kettle simmers on a cast iron stove.
Faucet’s drippin’ in the sink.
Matchbook underneath the table leg,
Teacup teeters on the brink.
Cobwebs draped across a window screen.
Horseshoe nailed above a door.
Things calmed down some since the weather broke.
Same sad silence as before.
Ma’s been servin’ up the buttermilk,
Boiled potatoes in a bowl.
Pa starts eatin’ while she’s sayin’ grace.
Lets her worry ‘bout his soul.
Man might say he be a slave to love.
Women make the same complaint.
Neither really know the meaning of
What it is and what it ain’t.
Categories:
red man, allegory, marriage,
Form: Lyric
The vow
Strip the black man of his color
And the white man of his tint
Don’t forget the brown, the yellow
Even the red man, get the hint?
Make them colorless and pasty
Let us see who’ll take the lead
Who will feel intimidated?
Will the color clash proceed?
And is it really in the color
In the tint and in the shade?
What then if we mix the colors?
Does that mean it is a trade?
Do we trade our inner beings
When we unify our hearts?
When we unify our thinking?
Is that why we’re still apart?
Are we so afraid of losing
Our worth and our place?
Could that be the very reason
Why we won’t give each his space?
Let us therefore do the stripping
Strip the things that don’t allow
Us to see that what’s of value
So let’s all just make this vow
’I will not see just a color
But a person, yes, a soul
Whom I will respect and honor
From now on that’ll be my goal.’
Wendy Nipas
Categories:
red man, color, space,
Form: Ballad
Spherical drums caressed by skins of buffalo
Stretched to their limits large on hollowed wood
Beat out with thunder, the heartbeat of the Earth
Define the universe, the breath of God's creation
Strong men whisper while horses bow their heads
Winds take them away on freshly fallen snow
Peyote hallucinations die with Indian nations
Whittled down to nothing in the cold
Red Feather in his soft moccasins steps lightly
Dances the ancestral dance of sadness to the sand
Costumed and covered in plumage colored bright
Women and children cry out their song
In a trance about the glowing embers fired
Days gone, lives lost, on prairie and desert lands
Eagles climb high before they reach the heavens
Away from the red man, they fly off to find God
Before the weather worsens
A chant continues in the dark
For braves who lost their lives
Former warriors pray for warmth
A bottle of whiskey and remorse
An arrow pierces every heart
Categories:
red man, abuse, appreciation, discrimination, identity,
Form: Free verse
Yellow Man
Red man
Blackman
Yellow man
Red Man
Black man
White man
Whole wide world is filled with disillusions
poverty in the streets over distributions
prejudice
Rich man
Poor man
Beggar man
Thief
Stop all selfishness, yourself let it rest give us peace
Prejudice
Don't touch me
Can't love me
Can't be my friend
All you ever want to do is see my end
Look into the mirror tell me who you see?
Well
prejudice
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr
Arranged music by James Edward Lee Sr
From demo "All Alone" ©1974
Categories:
red man, betrayal, bullying, character, community,
Form: Lyric
I am trapped in the past
In all the mistakes that I have made
I am trapped in a endless black hole and I can't find the way out
I am trapped in hell where my only friend is the little red man who used to be a beautiful angel.
He tells me that I am going to stay with him forever
He tells me that I am the one he's never going to let go.
I am trapped in a tornado of emotions.
And that tornado had ripped apart everything that lived inside me.
I am trapped within myself
And that's where I have to stay.
Because I have come to love the way my soul dances with my demons.
Categories:
red man, absence, silence, solitude,
Form: Free verse
Seeds Sprouted From Deep Within Mother Earth
Where watered are roots from my ancestral tree
in fields sown with pain and bitter harvests
Strong, brave-hearted once truly proud and free
sprouted mighty eagles from fledglings in a nest
Clear streams flowing, deep forests their paradise
the red-man lived life and sang happy songs
Long before whites came with deceit and vice
building towns filled with their lost greedy throngs
Seeds sprouted from deep within mother earth
freedom had its price but gave deep treasures
Living , loving and fighting for all his worth
red-man fought fire with full equal measures
Fate rewarded its deceivers with stolen goods
Now, Nature weeps when whites cut down our ancient woods
Robert J. Lindley, 11-03- 2016
Sonnet- LIN-10,11,12
Poem Syllable Counter Results
Syllables Per Line: 11 10 10 12 0 11 10 10 10 0 10 10 11 11 0 12 11
Total # Syllables: 149
Total # Lines: 17 (Including empty lines)
Words with (syllables) counted programmatically:
Total # Words: 110
Categories:
red man, appreciation, art, creation, history,
Form: Sonnet
Riding bareback ‘cross the wide plains
Brave Geronimo in his deep pain
Makes his pathway, looking forward
Never losing faith in fortune
To the far off land Dakota
Where he will seek for an answer
To the question that pursues him:
How and why and where he came from.
Warrior, peace man, loving life
Through this world’s unending strife
Boldly, lonely, empty-hearted
Seeking out the place he started,
Gripped and held in life’s deep wonder
Hearing only endless thunder.
‘Cross the wide, dark Gitchigumi
Named and famed by the Ojibwe
Through the lands of the Navajo
Apache, Cherokee and Sioux
On and on he journeys fiercely
Never pausing, never fal’tring
Prowling through his mind’s great vastness:
Infinite, eternal, endless:
Here he seeks to cease pretending
That he knows his life’s true meaning.
Without guide, without companion
Through forests wide and darkest canyon
Holding fast his faith in meaning,
Hope and purpose to his dreaming
Of his love at home awaiting
His return with light enlightened.
Categories:
red man, hope, howl, love, love
Form: Lyric
The vague patrolling recollection
sits like a fat white swan on her nest,
cuddling the unborn nakedness, fragile, soundless!
He caresses her wings,
she beats them frantically
as his cold old lips meshes and folds.
Dragging, he goes, she crackles
to the red-stained woods, painted
lovingly with millions that entered before.
His touch blackens and grips
She feeds on youths she hid in her thoughts,
Their time winding down, seconds after seconds.
And with the rage of Moses’s staff,
the loud shed quivers and her incantation feathered gown
sweeps in the red wind. Done, revelation!
The decapitated fowl runs in the eye of a God.
The red man ascends like Lazarus
coming, coming for the next victim of his plague.
Inside my coldness, I feel warmness,
I feel restfulness, I am papery and ready
for his touch of death. Thanks giving to clouds.
Categories:
red man, animal, bird, death, goodbye,
Form: Free verse
The trees speak of ages past and long ago
Lost and forgotten
recalled by history
written down by some wise sage.
All the secrets not revealed hidden lives of soldiers, vagabonds and pioneers
Struggling on in silence
as ghostly figures in the wood
holding on to land and freedom.
Shadow figures, bodies and spirits physically long since gone
Pounded deep below the surface
beneath the roots of trees
reborn with each new generation.
The images and faces erased now no longer here.
Struggles faded far away
allowing new ones to rise
making way for continuity.
The trees know.
They have seen it all before
born witness
to man's savagery.
The slaughter of the red man
the enslavement of the black
the demeaning of the yellow skin
Do we remember?
White men still struggke to free themselves to blind their heart and souls
in search and proclamation of justice, right, equality
Therein they lose their touch
with nature, brotherhood and God.
The trees speak
of knowledge and truth
of living life fully
of past, present and future.
It is we
who are not listening
and
we are not listening still.
Categories:
red man, education, humanity, race, time,
Form: Quatrain
Constitution says All men are created equal
We live in the home of the brave
But we annihilated the Red man
And made the black man a slave
We imprisoned the Yellow man
And judged the poor and the gay
Only a rich straight white Christian
Can be a free man today
We thirsted for power, now isn't it odd
We raped, pillaged and plundered in the Name of God
We committed crimes time will never erase
Then thumped a Bible in your face
We sin compulsively assuming God will forgive it
Then preach Christianity but we never live it
We formed a bigoted society where hate is the rule
If we accept others as Equals we call our own a fool
We sit in judgement of others, I guess we forgot
This isn't the way that Jesus taught
I'm a straight white Christian so maybe I'll fall
But I'll die believing God created us all
So when I read the Bible and God's Children I see
I'll never assume it's only children like me.
I no longer listen to your bigoted view.
Equality for all, not just people like you.
Equality means Equality and Bigotry is Bigotry
Jesus said "Love Thy Neighbor" NO DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVE.
Categories:
red man, christian, hate, social, usa,
Form: Rhyme
Colours
A passionate Red Man, in this cold, cruel, blue world,
stands, – one eighth blood in his veins, that doth swirl –
on his own, watching black prejudice all around, unfurl,
permeating every fiber, every grain of his marrow
that lay within the heart of the bones, the soul of this Red Man,
from the time the Europeans, the white man stole his land.
They coned, they pillaged, they raped, they stole with deaths hand.
The world they knew, gone, horror left, nothing but black !
Nothing the white man can do will ever bring it back !
The spirt , the soul, the heart and dignity,
all lost – for most - in the raging sea,
of the white mans greed
to satisfy his need.
B. J. “A” 2
March 27th 2004
Categories:
red man, racism, prejudice,
Form: Rhyme
Enemies of love, pride and injustice
The actions of the benevolent unnoticed
Omnipotent powers
Spark the cigarette that blinds your eyes
The smoke that hugs your nose, and penetrates your clothes
Grey streaks on rose-colored dyes
The red man that guides your actions,
Is the same man you look at in the mirror
Childish ambitions, oh cute superstitions
Ego of a scapegoat, the nightmares of gloat
The pirates of humanity afloat with no fear
They mime the tale of those who seek
The money in banks and the water of the creek
Their enemies brandish guns, cars and jewelry
Brownish tones of indifference
The Robin Hood mentality of selfishness
The human condition overlooked,
Suffering is malignant
The cancer spreads to the lungs of the desperate
Shooters of chemicals and perverts splattered in blood
Shrewd victims of consequences
Flooded in waste, the barriers of insecurity
Robbing our children of their eloquent innocence
Categories:
red man, addiction, allusion, anger, angst,
Form: Free verse
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