Bob-o-Link 6

Writer

Writings & Publications Continued: Titles, Synopsis, Excerpts

HOMAGE RHYME

Three-Volume Collection

(Three-Hundred Sixty-Five Versed Scenes)

EXCERPTS

HOMAGE RHYME III - Resurgence, Plunge, Rescue, Serendipity

1975-2000

Broken Promises

At wide river embankment
stared sadly at dying fire;
heard alluring voices of
eerie end-it-all choir.

Flat broke, out of hope,
weakened cope, spirit mired.
Critics quoted, friends poked,
family groped, nerves wired.

Marriage on the rocks,
three teenagers griefed, very tired.
Bank redeemed, creditors screamed,
depressed handyman for hire.

Past swirled, present whirled,
future burrowed, undesired.
Head knotted, heart clotted,
spirit rotted, down to wire.

Brother inspired, work desired,
helper sired, sweat required.
Tilled crops, weeds lopped,
harvest chopped, loaded docks.

Relearned how, greased plows,
bred sows, wiped brows.
Sorted pigs, fenced digs,
painted rigs, winter's jigs.

Strength gained, means obtained,
faith regained, healing refrained.
Accepted grief, fatalism's defeat,
treatment retreat, felt relief.

Remorse flared, mistakes declared,
change shared, serenity prayer.
Defects abhored, morals recored,
sanity restored, faith aboard.

Disfunctional family confided
before attempts to reunite.
Shattered marriage briefly sited
before divorce divided.

Invited, recited, confided
thirteen facts, enacts
to enlight:

God is love,
let go, let God;
honest lost costs,
to self be true;
speak for oneself,
live the moment;
attitudes foresee,
actions free;
plug the jug,
cope with hope;
learn from past,
regret not,
forgiveness lasts.

1978

Sweat Lodge

Bluff summit, Black Bird Bend,
marveled beautiful Missouri again.
Ancient river shackled end to end,
sad logic impossible to defend.

Sun's rays penetrate leafless cover,
burnished serene forest's veneer.
Slain deer hung, tree-limb hover,
chilly air, campfire sear.

Cut dozen or so willow sapplings
bent half-mooned;
butts soil-staked, rawhide tied.
Buffalo skin canopy, covered womb;
ancestral sweatlodge dark abide.

Fur capping exposed open door;
cattail leaves matted dirt floor.
Bucket of water brimmed before,
hand carved ladling, pour.

Long ago retreating glacier's
rolled smooth stones
glowed within smoldering coals.
Jim Lame Deer stoked fire
using ribbed bones;
prepared sweatlodge's
center-pit whole.

Ol' John Thunder,
Winnebago medicine man
of his tribe's buffalo clan;
sacred pipe, beaded pouch,
adeptly blended tobacco,
bits of sage, cedar in hand.
Pinches stuffed, tamped
in stone bowl vouched.

Elder motioned guests come near,
cupped pipestone, stem revered.
Blessed six directions,
earth, sky endeared;
respectfully prayed quietly,
near Great Spirit's hear.

Earth is hallowed mother loved,
sweatlodge, her womb risen above.
Entered sits, circle facing pit;
shared selves before pipe lit.

All made ready,
traditional ritual begun;
seven white-hot stones
open pit placed.
Lame Deer closed flap,
John Thunder sung;
temporary entomb,
reality embraced.

Heat beaded bodies bared;
smell of saged stones permeated air.
Ladled water, hissing steam flared;
singed skins for who dared.

More sage, more water,
more steam cleaned;
purifying bodies, minds, souls
convened.
More prayers, more shares,
more cares teamed;
letting go sow,
heartened praises deemed.

Great Spirit, six directions prayed;
eastern birthing, sunlighted rays,
southern youth anew clay,
western thunder-being rain conveys,
northern snowy-hair wisdom way,
below rooted mother earth's say,
above ancestrial spirits today.

Bore heated cleansing power;
portal flap opened on the hour.
Sweltering steam flowed,
outward towered;
frosty air streamed,
billowed flower.

Four times flap ajared, steeped,
four surges of torrid heat,
four prayerful urged seeks,
four spiritual purgings released.

Medicine man lit sacred pipe;
smoked it, circled it,
passed left to right.
Each questing survivor
savored alike,
inkind benefit from holy rite.

Humbled crawl from earth womb;
stood erect, observed obscure moon.
Frigid breeze swiped sweat caccoon;
healed mind, body, soul tuned.

With family of John Thunder dined;
feasted venison, fry bread,
brewed coffee, fruited vine.
Gifts, tributes, serviced kind;
departed friends, waved behind.

Deep-seeded need to absolve;
built sweatlodge, fired evolve.
Entered on hands, kneed resolve;
atoned healing mystery solved.

1978

Spirits Cry

"My hand is not the color of yours,
but if I pierce it, I shall feel pain.
If you pierce your hand,
you also feel pain.
The blood that will flow from mine
will be of the same color as yours.
I am a man.
The same God made us both."

Ma-Chu-Nah-Zha
(Standing Bear)

Poncas,
peaceful aboriginal people,
self-sustaining farmers.
American Great Plains abide
astride Niobrara divide,
present-day Nebraskan tribe.

Federal treaties,
1817 and 1825 alarmed;
treaties 1858 and 1865 harmed.

1876,
'an administrative error'
deeded Ponca land
to Sioux Nation.

1877,
Washington, D. C.
'Great White Father'
prepared reign of terror;
ordered Ponca forced removal
to Indian Territory,
present-day Oklahoma;
declared trade-off
fair and square.

1878,
On Niobrara hill,
'Washington Officials'
railed Ponca elders
to Indian Territory,
promised land willed.
Viewing the desolence,
wise elders rejected
deceitful drill.

Officials chilled;
refused rail-car home.
Abandoned Poncas stilled;
misery's longest walk
six-hundred miles
facing wintery nills;
shivering trudgers illed.

Poncas,
freezing, thinly clad,
came upon settler's farm.
Begged warmth, food had.
While thawing, supping there,
frost-bit feet seen;
'footprints in blood'
on snowy sheen.

Weary elders,
belated homecomers,
embraced grateful kin.
Before healthy again,
government soldiers
force-removed
Ponca tribe
from ancestrial land.
Steered like animals,
trail teared,
sick jeered,
death feared,
graves reared.

Prairie Flower,
beautiful daughter of
Standing Bear and Susette,
died and was buried;
rainbowed shower.

Bear Shield,
dying brother of
Prairie Flower,
whispered final will.
Grieving parents
agreed return still
his burial bones
to Niobrara hill.

Standing Bear,
faithful promise
to atone alone,
toted dead son's bones;
illegally fled
Indian Territorial home.

Ponca chief
trekked north engage.
Mission failed
when soldiers nailed;
Standing Bear,
Fort Omaha jailed;
stood trial.

Defendant
'writ of habeas corpus'
contended removal of
Standing Bear
to Okahoma Territory
'would constitute illegal
detention intended.'

All but one
doubted justice
would be served.

"It is a little thing,
a simple thing,
which my people ask
of a nation
whose watchword is liberty;
but it is endless
in its consequences.
They ask for their liberty,
and law is liberty."

Judge Dundy weighed the law,
his 1879 historic verdict
yet today unflawed.
Standing Bear became
'the first Indian
in federal court
to be mandated
a human being;'
civil righted eternal wall.

"...With regard to
the question of
whether or not
an Indian is a person,
the question cannot be
open to serious doubt.
Webster describes
a person as
'a living soul,
a self-conscious being,
a moral agent;
especially a
living human being;
a man, woman or child;
an individual of
the human race.'
This is comprehensive enough,
it would seem,
to even include an Indian."

When learning of
Standing Bear's story,
his brave Ponca's tears,
his historic civil rights trial
after many years;
his victory as
recognized person very clear,
his people's return to
their roots without fear,
I decided to produce the
world premiere stage drama
FOOTPRINTS IN BLOOD,
The Trial of Standing Bear,
for the
American Indian Center of Omaha
in recognition of
Native America's denied glory.

Daizen Victoria was there.
He conceived of it.
Indian Center Board was there.
It approved of it.

Christopher Sergel was there.
He wrote it.
Mary Michele Phillips was there.
She directed it.
Aleut actress Jane Lind was there.
She narrated it as Bright Eyes.

Mel Cobb was there.
He played Standing Bear.
Marie Antoinette Rogers was there.
The Apache actress played Suzette.
Eddie Whitehorse was there.
He played Bear Shield.
Tracy Hamilton was there.
She played Prairie Flower.

The Omaha Singers were there.
They drummed for it.
Wilson Wolf was there.
Standing Bear's grandson
prayed for it.

Michael Lamont was there.
He played defense attorney
Andrew Poppleton.
William Kirk was there.
He played prosecuting attorney
Lambertson.

David Hensley was there.
He played newspaperman
Thomas Tibbles.
Tom Wees was there.
He played
General George Crook.

Harry Duncan was there.
He played
Judge Elmer S. Dundy.
Buffy Sainte Marie was there.
She performed gala benefit.

Standing Bear's descendents
were there.
They acted in it.
The Ponca people were there.
They praised it.

The press was there.
They raved it.
Thousands of people
were there.
They applauded it.

Pauline Tyndall was there.
Standing Bear's seed
authored poem for it.

Footprints in blood;
truth would not die,
victorious justice sigh,
songed heart alive.

1979

Call Of The Wild

Big Stan A.
quarter-moon grin;
revealed heartening skim.
Chosen camp director
by him.

Friends merged
River City Metro Y,
crossed muddy estuary
on the fly.
Earth blushed blue sky,
superb camps bluffed high.

Camp Pokamoke,
beautiful valley dim,
hiked ancient sand-dune rim.
Camp Hitchcock,
magnificent viewed blend,
aboriginal paradise back when.

Vistas green from lodged within;
mystic regional limestone underpin.
Awe-gazed thunderstorm begin,
windswept stems, gully-washed limbs,
creatures scurried about again.

Briefed camping director's
diversified role;
annual resident camping
mild, hot, wet, cold;
summer day camping's
primary goals;
outdoor education's
highs, middles, lows;
weekend retreat's
many peopled shows.

Forests, meadows, prairie knolls,
trails, bridges, roads, ponded bowls,
lodges, cabins, barns, sheds, folds,
obstacle course, swimming holes,
ringed firepits, flagged poles,
astronomy platforms, gardened holds,
parking lots, tractor turfed mows.

Corrals, tack, forty-horse grow,
archery ranges, game-field uphold,
chute-tubing holds, skiing snow,
come-and-get-it belled tolls,
clean-up griping, scolds,
nighted campfire coals,
spooky storied tolds,
lights out, bedded souls.

Farm camp for city kids,
gardening til summer mid;
domestic animals, cared bids,
cows, calves, lambs, goats amid
pigs, chickens, cats,
kadydids, rabbit-couped lids;
ducks, geese, turkey glibs,
toads, frogs, bugs, snake slids,
buffalo calves, lotted figgs;
feeding did, manure rids,
many more exciting dids.
Bussed, parented home,
dirty hands, face, clothing
not hid.

Horse camp, tenderfoot tykes,
advanced riders, daily hypes.
Greeting, leading hikes,
adult wrangler, instructions right;
bridled, blanketed, saddled likes,
mounting, reining riding sites.
Trail blazing, exciting sights,
corraling, tack shedding dislikes;
grooming, watering, fed bites,
departed camp, teared alikes.

Swim camp, pretty hillside pool,
summer's water pure cool.
Skilled life-guarding school;
competition's friendly renewal,
stroking, kicking, diving duels;
obstinate pool's filter ruled,
fixin' often fooled.

American Indian camp, Native team;
Paphonee, Big Bear, Yellow Flower,
Jimmy Feather, Honey Bee;
Sioux, Omaha, Mandan,
Winnebago, Kickapoo, Pawnee.
Tipi life, many storied dreams,
rich heritage, sacred meanings.
Drumming, singing, dancing supreme;
beading, reeding, weaving deemed,
arrow-head making, sweatlodged clean;
campfire cooking, natural greens,
beaming campers, week-end weans.

Sport camp, aspiring players;
Hitchcock grant, fielded dayers.
Baseball, softball,
basketball layered;
soccer, archery, tennis
conveyors.

Backpack camp, ventured trekkers;
cross-country, trendy pace-setters.
Survival skills learned better;
tenting, cooking, night settlers,
fireside logs, tales, letters.

Leadership camp, teenage youth,
knowledged junior counselors due;
fine-tunned future, staffing move;
aided senior counselors on cue,
substitute guided groups too.

Summer kids, two thousand strong,
autumn stays, schools belong,
winter retreats, asorted throngs,
spring's wildlife songs.
Oh, how I relished
seasonal calms.
Camp directing,
a great big job;
invested, rested, bested,
worried, scurried, hurried,
hob-knobbed;
deployed, enjoyed,
encouraged, prods,
aided hurtful sobs;
four-year serving,
move-on bob,
cheerful nod.

1980-84

OK Outlet

Glorious crimson sundown
while driving prairie loop.
Recalled playwright's call
to restore sacred hoop.

A theatre company
needed producer rooted.
BLACK ELK SPEAKS,
original historic play,
reputed reinactment suited.

Traveled down to Tulsa Town
where oil pollutes ground.
Raised bunch of money around,
staged drumbeat's sound.

David Carradine, Will Sampson,
seasoned actors world renowned.
Casted Indian players found;
took places, ancestral gowned.

That marvelous production
attracted quite a crowd;
final curtain down,
planned homeward bound.

Invited stay on awhile,
second go 'round of
stage drama to produce.
FOOTPRINTS IN BLOOD,
historic civil rights trial;
Again's Native American
rich heritage boost.

Acquainted Ponca people,
most thought me okay.
Ritualed tribal ceremonies,
revisting traditional way.

Produced premiere,
INDIAN ARTS FESTIVAL,
hundreds craftsmen displayed.
Painters, jewelers, designers,
weavers, tellers, seekers,
blenders of clay.

Second invited retain gained,
directed, marketed
Indian theatre company's sustain.

Refurbished, moved in
Muskogee former ranch house;
rap-around porch,
three fireplaces,
country kitchen,
four bedrooms within,
lingering spirited kin.

Many indigenous people
and fewer medicine men
stayed over, camped out,
mended ranch's contend.

Philip Deer, Muskogee facted,
medicine man esteemed,
often kitchen chit-chat;
together spiritually teamed,
vied awarenes backed,
hopes for humanity beamed, Aged, serene, alert, lean,
Philip passed on
to Great Spirit supreme;
dearly missed his gone,
praised each new dawn.

Then angina struck,
my lowered low.
Emergency vehicle,
cardiac victim in tow,
hospitalized woe.

Surgeon sawed,
chest-plate parted;
heart-lung machine,
pulsated start.
Starving human pump
bedded on ice;
sustained life,
fated suffice.

Out of body away
from earth surged;
timeout weighed
merging layers of stars,
heavens converged.
Weightless body
turning, drifted far,
enrapturing jar.
Spirited merge,
onward surge;
soul-minded urge,
affliction purged,
enlightened verge.

Alone, apart,
recovered start.
Muskogee ranch,
appetite starked.
Haven rest,
familied talks,
nutricious food,
ruraled walks,
uplifted mood.

Restored stout
ended doubt;
returned to ranks,
theatrical clout.
Nearly four years
lived down south
in and out
Tulsa Town
where purged oil
pollutes sacred ground.

Finally broke away,
headed back home
where river runs muddy
but oil-free clean.
Wished not return
to southern tainted sand;
OK outlet,
forgotten dream.

1985

Lodge Poles

Westward ho,
crossed Mighty Mo,
van-racked lodge poles,
traditional tipi stowed,
drove toward tribal lands
on the go.

Nebraska sandhill plains
to Wyoming's drift;
Sawtooth mountains,
Montana lift.
Sighted coulee rift,
sniffed sage, windy shift.

Sandman and I,
comaraderie allied,
camped beneath big sky.
Mystic echoes, primeval cries;
ancient culture, villaged lie;
ringed stones, tipis tied.
Ages gone by,
lingered souls,
Great Mystery's nigh,
nourishment supplied.

Lodge pole-tripod lifted,
positioned coned sit.
Canvas hide wrapped,
flaps spread adrift;
anchored tipi,
no big storm lift.

Dug shallow pit,
fireside gift;
gathered kindling
stacked at lip.
Coffee perked,
meal-time sip;
bed-rolls sited,
backside's quit;
enclosed circle,
spiritual uplift.

Sweatlodge pitched
on rocky cliff;
white-hot stones,
heat resist.
Cleansing ritual,
steamy drips;
restful sleep,
dreamy trips.

Awakened daybreak,
alive with hope;
opened flap,
peered upon slope.
Startled deer bolts,
bald eagle,
winged float.

Serene solitude,
mountained remote;
curiosty poked,
gratifying cope.
Subtle movements,
sounded notes;
healing visions,
versed quotes.

Gratitude, nature's way,
embered reflection,
too briefed stay.
Broke remote camp,
drove slowly away;
departed lament,
yesterday, today.

Sandman and I,
friendship re-allied,
camped beneath big sky.
Mystic echoes, primeval cries;
ancient culture, villaged lie;
ringed stones, tipis tied.
Ages gone by,
lingered souls,
Great Mystery's nigh,
eternity on high.

1986

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