Short South Dakota Poems
Short South Dakota Poems. Below are examples of the most popular short poems about South Dakota by PoetrySoup poets. Search short poems about South Dakota by length and keyword.
We die in the present,
but live in the past
Though the moment may claim us
—our memory to last
(Pine Ridge South Dakota: June, 1993)
“Fire of my words…
vanish like smoke
into a raging sky
Blanket forever
the memory
of my being”
(Pine Ridge South Dakota: July, 2009)
From the Kiowa to the Cree,
people sing and dance
Prairies ringed with fire
—a ghost returns at last
(Pine Ridge South Dakota: September, 1994)
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’
My short name, my lucid green day
My South Dakota doll accent, my life-jacket
My worn through the knee blue jeans
A red ant
struggles
between the last two toes.
Form:
Knowing I won’t answer
you’re welcome to ask
Questions like a distant
echoing wind
Blown into nothingness
— chasing the past
(Pine Ridge South Dakota: Fall, 2010)
I am from Iowa
the corn state
we have corn princesses
corn queens
Mrs. Corn
Miss Corn Pone
Corn festivals
corn pudding
corn dogs
corn-on-a-cob
Corn City
South Dakota has our corn palace though
The Black Hills are crying,
our Mother forsaken
Enemy boot prints
where moccasins claim
To live just to die
in noble futility
All drums beat in silence
—He Sapa in shame
(Pine Ridge South Dakota: July, 2019)
Can our culture live on,
can its message be contained
Will an eagle looking down
see the joy or the pain
Will our heritage run deep,
like the river that flows
To an all-consuming delta,
and the life force who knows
(Pine Ridge South Dakota: June, 1993)
We cannot eat lies
or feast on empty promises
No more than the bison,
starving in the desert sand
We cannot clothe our children
as we run from the Wasichus
Our teepees torn and freezing
amidst the winter snows
(Pine Ridge South Dakota: Late September, 1994)
Blizzard of seventy-eight
Paralyzed USA’s middle state of Indiana
Not as awful as the great blizzard of 1888
Which dropped fifty inches of snow in three days
Even blizzard alley
Minnesota, North and South Dakota
Did not suffer from these two record
Monster blizzards
KAREN
mother, daughter, wife, poet
sister of Lois and Penny
lover of Brad, Skylar and Harley
who feels happiness, sorrow excitement
who fears snakes, our next election, snow covered roads
would like to see South Dakota, Vermont and Wisconsin
resident of Fort Loramie, Ohio
CROFT
To go in a circular, spiral, curved
Or crooked course
Breeze, zephyr, puff or bluster
Claptrap, horwash or baloney
Tornado, Cyclone or a disaster
No matter how you put it
If your vehicle stays on the road
In Kansas, South Dakota or Wyoming
You have more than met your goal
Form:
miles away from any town
deep darkness falls upon plains
wayside conversations
at the edge of a deserted highway
in solitude poets and lovers
new meanings sought
a blank page seeks its verse
stars and planets hide
the world turns toward light
revelations of dawn
August 9, 2021
Steel insulation warm thin hot smooth downy shepherd smoothness. Pistol clasps palms crystal misses birching basket weavers.
Fluffy firm pedestals release hard deniers.
Doldrum office charts demonstrating
Appendages conceal resistance.
Halcyon boogie board heroes.
Greek play rehearsal.
Steel insulation warm thin hot smooth downy shepherd smoothness. Pistol clasps palms crystal misses birching basket weavers.
Fluffy firm pedestals release hard deniers.
Doldrum office charts demonstrating
Appendages conceal resistance.
Halcyon boogie board heroes.
Greek play rehearsal.
Sometimes,
the very best informed
remain the most naïve
Cronkite
in 1963,
“Oswald Was The One”
The Mob sat back
and licked their chops,
“Bobby’s Finished Now”
As millions mourn
in false belief
—and Warren to mislead
(Crazy Horse Memorial: Black Hills South Dakota, September, 2021)
Idea of profit hope for snowflake March and November rain. Are you leading back to Rapid City or Pine Ridge?
I was in the halfway house in Mitchell. Did you visit the Corn Palace or the doll shop?
I heard you are in Aberdeen. I am still your dream?
Symmetrical preponderance stopwatch courthouse cuckoo clock
Spitting on gravestones North Minnesota
Idea of profit hope for snowflake March and November rain. Are you leading back to Rapid City or Pine Ridge?
I was in the halfway house in Mitchell. Did you visit the Corn Palace or the doll shop?
I heard you are in Aberdeen. I am still your dream?
Symmetrical preponderance stopwatch courthouse cuckoo clock
Spitting on gravestones North Minnesota
Gigantic pylons of wind-carved granite
Form astonishing pillars of natural wonder
Sculptures to rival Borglum's finest faces
Perilously perched along the winding trail
Punctuating the Black Hills with awesome
Commas of towering mystical totems
Where once the proud Native Americans
Roamed with the buffalo in blessed peace
written August 25, 2021
If you hailed from South Dakota,
And someone asked you, "Where you from?"
You wouldn’t simply say, “Uh, Dakota.”
And if you grew up in the hills of West Virginia,
You’d never be inclined to just reply, “Oh, I’m from Virginia.”
But if your mind is going to Carolina,
And you knew James Taylor’s home address,
It doesn’t matter whether North or South,
You’ll navigate your way by GPS.
snaps cowgirl Indian boyfriend
The sound of buffalo meat on her teeth,
Taste the smell of sleep,
Cannabis wafting,
Chew the diamond, steal the slipper,
Call the captain and skinny dipper.
The palm fronds climb.
Squaw walks whiskey hills
Eyes cracked wide shut
Gripped by the hunger of a world,
chasing visions
The moon bleeds through the window
The stars hum a song of youth.
Rapid City, South Dakota
I always like Fall best
You can eat buttery pancakes
From huge Ihop
And Omelets
And Toast
And skillets
And lots of Reese
And Butterfingers
And Twix
At the colorful gas station
And listen to
Nice relaxing music
On the hill
At the Mt. Rushmore
And go to the Corn Palace with
My friend Troy
And go to the baseball game
And watch the sunset setting
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
Solomon’s secretive solemn sassy sensuous servants and songbirds
Solicited serious Somalian solutions simultaneously with South African,
Southeast Asian, South Dakota, and South America. Squiffy, squirmy
Spiny specialized swordfish sent spiraling soon soared with sticky,
Silly starfish wearing stiletto heels. Surfboarders supposedly stepped
Over stormy streams to strip submarginal substances from slippery surfaces.
Sadly some suspected subterfuge.