He hardly had anything to say.
Many flocked to him
just to hear his no-wisdom.
I also have no-wisdom,
yet I fail constantly to employ it.
My silence is as good as yours,
but I will break it first.
My mind is gearless,
it spins
and I have an irrepressible hanker
to write bibles,
hasty poetic scriptures
jotted into the air
with a ball-point tongue.
My unsaid is stuffed
into a megaphone and deafened.
Beware of the singing Magpie,
it will steal your silence
and call it wampum,
don't exchange your no-wisdom
for shiny beads.
With one mighty swing of your forty-two ounce bat,
out of the ballpark was where the baseball was at.
A great player blessed with athletic prowess,
you made the ball travel like a nonstop express.
You were Wampum, Pennsylvania's native son.
As far as sports was concerned, you could not be outdone.
One of the Major League's feared sluggers you would be.
Many opposing pitchers became filled with anxiety.
An outstanding career was something you could claim.
I still wonder why you are not in the Hall of Fame.
Yes, you were better than many who played the game.
May you rest in peace as they will remember you name.
Dick Allen
(1942-2020)
HOLDER OF THE HEAVENS
religion of love —
the Holder of the Heavens
spurs unity and purpose
the longhouse people
strong belief in afterlife
honored Spirit…lived good life
forever friendships
less crime ~ police force null
embraced Christianity
with brotherly care
the Iroquois weave gardens
enforced with no social caste
prayer and praise to God —
tobacco like incense lifts
with thankfulness...wampum tribe
11/26/2018
Line Gauthier’s Tribute to Native Culture Poetry Contest
References:
prezi.com
http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/environmental_center/sunbury/website/HistoryofIroquoisIndians.shtml
https://iroquoisgroup24.weebly.com/religious-beliefs-and-ceremonies.html
the quahog clam shell
for chowder and wampum beads
...Iroquois treasure
8/17/2018
Adventure’s End
The journey brings back, strings of wampum.
A belt telling stories, projecting memories.
Moments portrayed in coloured beads.
A summer’s experience, in southern Ontario,
they are the reads in wampum belt beads.
They bring to life, once again,
so many moments, so many memories.
During these current moments,
what will be savored from those moments ?
B. J. “A ” 2
October 20th 2014
You wear your feathers proudly like a tribal chief.
However, the things you do cause your better half’s grief.
You gamble away the wampum that was meant for groceries.
That money can’t be picked as if it grows on trees.
Other females are taken in as if they were refugees.
How many nights have you spent in other tepees?
You load up with fire water until your head starts to spin.
That’s enough to make your woman’s patience to be thin.
You had better start running faster than Rin Tin Tin.
She will come after you with a barrage of artillery.
Nothing will save you. Not even the U. S. Cavalry.
Can’t you see that her skin is turning red?
When she catches up to you, she will bust your head.
Amid 240 units of toil
Reigns my Connie
Where she walks
Is blessed soil
California sun
To match her hair,
No nature's beauty
Could compare
Sitting at a table,
With her friend Denise,
Mulling over a
Possible lease...
To an Indian
named Cochise...
Will he pay in wampum
Or scalps he'd taken,
Or Indian souvenirs,
Or maybe he's fakin'
Maybe he's
really from Jersey
Or maybe he's not...
Will he want
To keep buffalo
In the parking lot?
Will arrows fly
When he gets mad?
Will he smoke
odd stuff
When he is sad?
Erect a teepee
In his living room?
Keep six squaws
To dispell his gloom?
Ride his horse
bareback to work...?
Feathered head
that he can shake?
Or suit and tie,
Briefcase at his side,??
Laptop computer
Covered in cowhide??
It's a mystery,
As you can see...
Time will soon tell
What will be.
I'll let you know
how it turns out,
And even though
You likely doubt,
This story that
I'm telling you...
Yet, it's possible,
that it just might
be true.
Is there anything to give you that you haven't had before?
all my wampum ,all my seashells,all my furs are on the floor
take these shiny pebbles with you ,they are rare and truly fine
I had kept them for the moment when I hoped to make you mine.
so you choose the distant vision of the strange and foreign shore
on the great ships you are leaving ,I will see you nevermore.
Pocahontas ,lovely maiden,you'll return some day to find
all you really ever needed you have left so far behind.