Short Lakota Poems

when the ducks return
	pink mosses utter volumes ~
		Lakota listen

(April Full Moon – Lakota)...

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battle between bucks
	deadly duel-decided ~
		scavengers spectate

(November Full Moon – Dakota and Lakota)...

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searing shining sun
	bedazzling snowmelt season ~
		a sight for sore eyes

(March Full Moon – Dakota, Lakota, Assiniboine)...

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Lakota
Heyokah
Sacred clown
Empathic
Warrior
Sacred Mirror
Provoke Truth
Using Laughter
Precious Gift
Lakota
Heyokah...

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mustard spreads its warmth
	stone ground with bits of bold brown ~
		leaves valiant passing

(September Full Moon – Lakota)...

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The white wing of the wind
blew down from tomorrow

Carrying a message of hope
—from beyond the unknown

(Dreamsleep: August, 2020)...

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The wolf demands
what the shepherd
can’t protect

A busy hand
helps the angry heart
forget

(Pine Ridge South Dakota: July, 2019) 
‘To Mari Sandoz’...

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clouds dance in a peaceful brisk morning

a song of nature fills his soul...

a young Lakota native embarks upon a vision quest 

a spirit of one, he dreams.......

the elders eyes search high above.....................

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Spiritual beings
Caretakers of land
Legends and stories
Lovers of children
Saviors of settlers

United States
Cherokee nation
The Paute Tribe
Crow and Lakota

Apache
Wyandotte
Mohaw tribe

Native
People

Home...

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A Lakota Sioux Elder 
  once prophetically said…

  “We will be known forever
   by the tracks we leave behind”

That wisdom now marking
  a trail of tears
   —any hope still yet to find

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2019)...

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For Papa

That monster inside us
devouring the past
Our memories hunted
most recent to last

No mercy is shown us
as darkness creeps in
Today and tomorrow
—lost into the wind

(Tribute To Hemingway: January, 2024)


Lakota Buffalo Prayer

Shooting 
today
Killing 
tomorrow

Targeted
fortune
Lost
—to the wind

(The New Room: January, 2024)


...

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in the strong heart society there is one known as the buffalo eye. do the sweat lodge ceremony to speak with the stone turtle. you will see the Lakota sun dance at first light with the canupa. All my relatives... walk the red road, listen to the black road. call to grandfather spotted eagle among the natural people, and red eagle will allow elk trail to use the fire of no end...

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Off to Mount Rushmore
To see the presidents:
Washington, Jefferson,
Lincoln, and Roosevelt,
Men of enormous stature
In the land of The Lakota,
Keystone, South Dakota
Fourteen years undertaking
Borglum’s work breathtaking,
With sixty-foot-high faces
Carved into granite outcrop,
One of our country’s
Most celebrated places.

written August 15, 2021

Featured on All Poetry's Front Page
September 28, 2021...

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Storms of sorrow,

Etch furrowed rows
Ingrained of sad memories past
Carved deep in brow
A mounted warrior of Ghost Dance last

Storms of sorrow,

The will, nor image could force
Stoic in nature, as brazen of life
A granite warrior's likenesses, emulate it's only source

Storms of sorrow,

Upon brow of the "Nation"
Instill change, in a memory's course
From atop Lakota Black Hills
Emerges the legend, the legend of the one called Crazy Horse...

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We people long before born here,
hunting lands for our eat.
our heavens above shed us tears,
and life began to beat.
 
Heavens gave to them purest birth,
above they warm my skin.
calling to me as mother earth,
I beat their heart within.
 
Nourished by the mother we live,
grateful for all we own.
we live on to all that she gives,
her body is our home.
 
All my children work day to day,
to keep our ways alive.
carrying with them much of pay,
from burden of a strive

-ibh...

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