Jan 25 2015

Today marks the last week of the Small Stones Challenge for 2015.

Photo of Sioux American Indian Flying Hawk (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“ The Great Spirit… made… sunlight to play, night to sleep, everything good.” – part of a quote from Flying Hawk, Oglala Clan, 19^th century.

 And I can relate to this today, having finally broken the cycle of falling asleep in front of the TV, not getting into bed till the wee hours, and wondering why my eyes have packed their puffy bags…

At last I remember the bright sun
burning the noon sky a deeper blue
It could almost be spring,

but there are still tell-tale white drifts
across a neighbour’s roof, new snow,
the crash of melting ice falling

from one slope to another, clear shine
of icicles, the long fingers of winter
still holding January tight in its grasp.
CAS Jan. 25, 2015

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