Tag Archives: Terri Jean

Small Stones for Jan. 12 and 13, 2015

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stones pic 2 for blogSomehow, I forgot to post yesterday, so today is a two-fer.  Yesterday there was a reading about meanings of colours to various American tribes, and I noticed what seemed a contradiction of an earlier one, that white was for the North. Here, it was instead for the south, but I don’t know the exact context, and I’m willing to accept that there can be such opposites in beliefs. It brought to mind childhood, and the way our stories change as we get older.

Jan 12

The world turned upside down
when as I read white for south
blue replacing it in the north.
How often do we spin, lose direction,
find our compasses no longer find
true North? As children, we knew things:

English: Thomas Nast's most famous drawing, &q...

English: Thomas Nast’s most famous drawing, “Merry Old Santa Claus”, from the January 1, 1881 edition of Harper’s Weekly. Thomas Nast immortalized Santa Claus’ current look with an initial illustration in an 1863 issue of Harper’s Weekly, as part of a large illustration titled “A Christmas Furlough” in which Nast set aside his regular news and political coverage to do a Santa Claus drawing. The popularity of that image prompted him to create another illustration in 1881. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Santa came at Christmas, there were fairies
and Peter Pan, we had to step over cracks in the
sidewalk so Mother’s back remained unbroken,
parents lived forever. The first broken promise?
The one about Santa, then fairies.
We didn’t stay young forever.


http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/171179401

 

CAS Jan. 12, 2015

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Jan 13


Embed from Getty Images

Why did I expect to live forever? Every autumn
evidence of impermanence. Flowers die,
the earth’s face ages into cold white, the obits
that sadden hearts every December. The mirror
has been telling me for years, but somehow

I’ve always looked right past the signs. Harder
now to ignore, but I am still looking away.
I keep hearing “It could be worse. Consider
the alternative.” And I try, but the words are
in a foreign tongue.

CAS Jan. 13, 2015

Bernardo Strozzi - Old Woman at the Mirror - W...

Bernardo Strozzi – Old Woman at the Mirror – WGA21912 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Small Stone for Jan. 11, 2015

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stones pic 2 for blogJan 11  Some of the daily readings in the Red Road book offer great writing inspiration and some, while still interesting, do not provide a spark for my own poem. Today’s is such a day. For those, I either go back to the introduction or, as I will today, look to another book I am currently reading, Spirits of the Earth, by Bobby Lake-Thom, which is a guide to Native American Nature Symbols, Stories and Ceremonies.

Since taking a poetry workshop with Albert Dumont some years ago, I have been intrigued by the spirituality of the First Nations peoples. Albert Dumont http://albertdumont.com/ is a Poet, Storyteller, Speaker, and an Algonquin Traditional Teacher. He was born and raised in traditional Algonquin territory (Kitigan Zibi).

“There are ancient secrets and lessons hidden in Nature… In the old days our elders taught us stories and secrets about Nature while singing songs around the lodge fire.”

When man encroaches on habitats of the wild things,
we do not hear them raise voices in protest.
Instead, we protest that they trespass on us.

We are the violent species, we are the ones
that take what is not ours to take.
Other species kill for food and for survival.

We are the ones who slaughter what is not
of our kind. Which is the savage beast,
which the more entitled to survive?
CAS Jan 11 2015

 

Small Stone for Jan. 10 2015

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Embed from Getty Images

 

 

Jan 10

 

“The Talking Feather is a communication device used by various tribes to ensure a person’s right to speak without interruption from others.”

 


http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/177887485

 

When the Feather rests against your palm, would you
talk out, or keep your thoughts inside, afraid
to rage at injustice for fear of retribution?

 

If the truthsayers of the world are silent,
if we no longer speak out, who will
raise their voices for those who cannot?

 

CAS Jan 10 2015

Indian Talking stick

Indian Talking stick (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

 

Small Stone for Jan. 9 2015

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stones pic for blog

Jan 9

“Civilization has been thrust upon me…” Luther Standing Bear, Oglala Sioux, 1868-1937

 

Luther Standing Bear (1868–1939), a Native Ame...

Luther Standing Bear (1868–1939), a Native American writer and actor (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Two of the definitions of the word civilization at Dictionary.com. The word is from the French. I looked it up this morning, as I pondered the state of our world this week and its events in Paris.

“an advanced state of human society, in which a high level of culture, science, industry, and government has been reached.”

“cultural refinement; refinement of thought and cultural appreciation”

A lifelong perception, that I live
in a civilized world, that we’ve grown apart
from the primitive beginnings, from superstitions
in my Canadian culture. Raised to polite behavior,
to please and thank-you, ladies first, hats off indoors.

The first crack in the veneer, October 22nd, 2014 when
terror and death arrived on Ottawa’s doorstep.
No longer an isolated capital at the end of secondary highways,
but scene of the death of an innocent belief that we were safer.

This week, terrorists slaughter journalists, kill cartoonists
in Paris, January 7 2015. Yesterday, a policewoman.
And today, six hostages in eastern Paris at a supermarket
on Pointe de Vincennes, among them a baby of six months.
My definition of civilized world twists into caricature of itself.

CAS Jan 9 2015