Sky brightens as the morning warms,
smoke from a chimney lifts in the air.
Ground’s unthawed, the ice is gone
yet the planet’s fate demands our care.

Serious times, we preach to the crow
perched on a power line over the street.
Scarred by abuse the land still breathes,
rivers run course through rock cut deep.

Plowed over grasslands, the heartbreak of concrete,
bird-sounds forgotten and thoughts of our birth,
each bear forgiveness and something like joy
in the endless renewal from the heart of the earth.

 

Gen. Wesley Clark Jr., middle, and other veterans kneel in front of Leonard Crow Dog during a forgiveness ceremony at the Four Prairie Knights Casino & Resort on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation on Monday, Dec. 5, 2016.

 

 

13 Responses

  1. This is so beautiful, Don. This poem has captured the photo so well. I love that this is the first thing I’ve read in this new year.

  2. …yet, there is an obstruction upstream, wanting broken free, Vets in humbling apology, indigenous ones yet hurt, proudly forgiving….but for that last dam, dam it!….refusing! fearful of yielding! 19 days of opportunity remaining…what then…slippery slope? A torrent of rain-ful Truth forcing the issue…breaking through, maybe destructively? I may weep some, but I remain Standing with the Rock.

  3. “Plowed over grasslands, the heartbreak of concrete,
    bird-sounds forgotten and thoughts of our birth
    each bear forgiveness and something like joy
    in the endless renewal from the heart of the earth.”

    Mantras for these times, Don. May I continue to experience “something like joy” as the necessary unravellings and de-constructions deepen and widen over these next few years…and the authentically true and new emerges from the underlying Quantum Field.

  4. I love hearing you voice so beautifully what we love so tenderly in our hearts. This orchestration of pulsating care, is alive and soothing and always in want for results that heal. The snow is falling softly outside.

  5. Feelings of ominous foreboding prevail as I think about
    all that we’ve worked for for decades will likely be trashed
    in the next four years

  6. The power of forgiveness is strong in your words, Don………scarred by abuse the land still breathes……………that must be our deep heartfelt mantra! Thank you, and may our journey together continue to bless in 2017!

  7. Hello Don: This is a warm and wonderful way to begin a new year of Great promise.

  8. Don…I am reading Will Wilkinson’s new book NOW OR NEVER…and this poem gets at the heart of the book.

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