Jan 24 2015
“A people without a history is like wind on the buffalo grass.” – Teton Sioux proverb

English: Buchloe dactyloides (syn. Bouteloua dactyloides) – Buffalo grass – is the mat-forming habit with hairy curly leaf blades is characteristic of this species. It is used as a drought tolerant ‘lawn’ garden plant in temperate North America. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

How appropriate this quote seems to me when journalists inform us of overriding plans for a new monument to stand near the Supreme Court of Canada and the Library and Archives building on property meant for a new Federal Court. This site is controversial and there are those who believe it will overshadow our own history. I am certainly not against what the memorial is to commemorate, but I am concerned about what effect this location may have in light of the objections raised.

When I looked for a definition of the proverb, quite separate from any discussion of the memorial, it seems to relate to the overlay of other versions of North American history that displace Navajo (Diné) oral versions of events. http://historum.com/blogs/ghostexorcist/5329-navajo-history-creation-stories.html

Whose version of history do we pass on to future
generations? What monuments will we raise
here, in this city where our history is preserved in old buildings?

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/177673762


Will there be memorials to the first ancestors, to those who
came after, or to those who never were here at all?
Is money the key? Those with the most cash

decide where and how prominent their chosen icons?
What form of governance reigns all-powerful today,
and whom will we salute tomorrow?

CAS Jan 24, 2015

CanadaStatueJustice (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Statue of Truth outside the Supreme Court of Canada in the capitol City, Ottawa in the province, Ontario. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jan 23, 2015

“…a stroll through a winter forest.” Part of a longer quote from the sculptor, Frederick Remington (1861-1909)

Stark black bark foregrounds against
the flat white of snow as it clings
to branch and bush and each dead leaf

among the greens of spruce and pine,
above faint track of hare and brush wolf,
perhaps last evening’s stray coyote.

 Mornings, early, there will be deer,
a few dark-eyed juncos, but no bear here,
nor moose. Each creature scavenging,

but the frozen ground yields nothing,
so they don’t stay long. Only the birds
find the feeder, too cold now even for squirrels.

CAS Jan 23, 2015

Jan 22 2015

…dressing up is done whether in imminent danger in an oncoming battle or a sickness or injury at times of peace.” – Wooden Leg, Cheyenne Warrior and Tribal Judge 1858-1940

While death is something we seldom joke about, my thoughts are not so dark today, and I was struck by a rather fanciful notion of warding it off. I’ve riffed on the idea of an apple a day helping to keep us healthy.

It occurs to me to wonder:
if I take care never to dress up,
might I substitute pajamas for the apple

that keeps the doctor safely in his place,
not needing to visit me? Would sloppy
unkempt appearance mean long life?

Or should I always greet the day
in my best dress, makeup carefully done
just in case it is time to leave?

CAS Jan. 22, 2015

Jan 19

“… All we wanted was peace and to be left alone…I was not allowed to remain quiet. I was tired of fighting. I have spoken.” — Crazy Horse, Oglala Sioux, on his deathbed, 1877

For days now I’ve longed for quiet
in my brain, peace and serenity,
to look out my window to still waters
far from rapids racing over stone.

But the blood still pounds in my head,
thoughts racing forward into darkness
always facing future, when instead
there is today, its hours wasted thinking

about those things that never happen,
and the ones where time is not yet right
Those are the hours to be savoured, to focus
on the glint of sun, the beauty in a single snowflake.

CAS Jan. 19, 2015