Poems -- TEACHERS' LOUNGE

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Date Posted: 23:30:47 09/14/04 Tue
Author: Louis Whitehead
Subject: Poems

Hi, everyone.

I'm a graduate student in journalism at South Dakota State University, and also write about American Indian issues and other topics for various publications. David is a good friend of mine, as well as my writing coach and one of my mentors.

Below are some poems that I have written that "Pulse" (http://www.heartsoundspress.com) has published, and that David has asked me to post to this discussion board. I hope that everyone enjoys them, and takes something good from reading them.

No Man's Land

An empty overcast sky looms above
thousands of broken and bloodied bodies strewn across the scorched earth
This land, once a place of life, is now a place of death
This land, once so full of life
Now sleeps fitfully under the ashes of its former self
Only time will tell if this land and the hearts of many nations will rise again, like the phoenix
From the ashes of their former life
�
Like the sky, like life, the world is awash in gray
There is no black and white here
The green of life has been flushed away
The unnamed brothers in arms scattered across the sterile bleakness
Make us count the cost of the price that they paid
�
Perhaps at one time, on this field of battle
Flowers grew, children played, and couples made love in the sun�s warmth
Now, in the aftermath of death and destruction, nothing lives or grows here
Someday perhaps, the rains of a new day
will wash the pain and suffering away from this countryside
And from the seeds of sorrow will a new life and a new world begin

Fragmented

The darkness of the new moon
That dwells in a starless summer sky
Blankets the earth that lies sleeping below it
It creeps into a man who stands fragmented and alone
In the midst of his brothers and sisters who surround him and stare
And yet pay him no mind
They don�t see the tears that he hides from them and from himself
The tears that long to slide down his cheeks and fall to Earth
Tears that he fights to release and hold back at the same time
Day after day, year after year,
he has divided, subdivided, and subdivided himself yet again
Like so many quarter notes, broken down into eighth and sixteenth notes
And spread himself so thin
Like a pat of butter that struggles to service so many slices of dark toast
So that pieces of himself have scattered to the Four Winds
With a handful of Top curled in his fingers
He raises a trembling fist and voice to the western sky and calls
�Come back!�
To the northern sky
�Come back!�
To the eastern sky
�Come back!�
To the southern sky
�Come back!�
Making a complete circle, he turns again to face the west
And casts his offering of tobacco into the gathering breeze

Bike Poem

I glide on two wheels over the streets of this town
while the cool evening breeze laps my cheeks
And the night air plays chicken with my nose
My eyes follow the street to the dim horizon
where the sun has completed its day�s journey
The darkness,
sired by the setting sun and birthed by the new moon
steals my mind away to distant places
to the barren trails of Nevada highways and hospital corridors
and to prairies that resonate with the thunder of buffalo hooves percussing the green earth
and the cries of eagles that I long for
Now, the burning in my thighs
draws me back to this reality
As I pedal to make this ascent
with my mind and body once again rooted in the material world
I once again gaze into the distance
and smile at the promise of adventures that lie on the road ahead

One Heart, Two Worlds

I sit alone this night
cocooned by wooden walls and double-paned windows
that make me a witness
to currents of cars, trucks, and motorcycles
streaming down the streets of this college town
and to couples, who stroll hand in hand and laugh under a half-moon
�
In this city nestled at the nadir of the northern couteau
my heart and mind quiet themselves,
quiet themselves enough to pause,
to reflect on how they are often pulled apart
as they walk,
sometimes as one, sometimes as two
unconstrained by the clarity of right and wrong
upon a road both meandering between and straddling
two worlds � one red, one black
�
Computers, cars, money, and power infest one world,
while spirits, smoke, songs, and blood and its memories populate the other
on this road, on this line, my heart sometimes tears in two
and my mind hasn�t learned to mend,
much less reconcile this division
�
�You have come back to the center,� they told me the other night
those words kindle the faded fire in my belly and restore the hope
that there is a way to function and to live,
to really live, in these two worlds
and that I have not sold myself into service of one world at the expense of the other,
the real world, where the real power dwells and embraces us
�
Someday, somewhere down the line,
in this journey around the circle
I will learn to look within myself and grow and find the way
within and without
to bridge these two worlds, realms of cold technology and living spirit
to take the good from both
and to make them one

In a Good Way

On the edge of sleep, on the edge of life
With half-open eyes
I stand before all of Creation
And before the One whose breath my body bears
Clothed only in the laurels feathers scars
That I have earned
Those who came before me
Those who tread the earth now
Those who are not yet born
Fix their brown blue green grey eyes upon me
As they stand with me at dawn
On the brink of a new day
I shoulder the hopes and dreams that they have piled upon me
And spilled into my blood
A sea of grass and trees blankets the eastern hills,
The bellies of the world hide the face of the naked sun
As it rises from its bed below the horizon
And I ready myself for the fall to Earth
This day, one chapter ends
And another begins
The road to this place has been long
But the road looms longer as a greater journey begins
Where this road will take me, I can only guess
And pray that my feet will follow the right road
And that I think act love live die in a good way
And that I may walk my talk until the day comes
When I go back to that place from which we all come
And life begins anew

Thank you for the opportunity to share these poems.

Louis
�
�

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Replies:

Poems are very welcome here -- david pego, 10:07:25 09/15/04 Wed