Crow Poetry

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR

2008-04-29T19:19:00.000-07:00

by Edna St Vincent Millay

I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death.
I hear him leading his horse out of the stall;
I hear the clatter on the barn-floor.
He is in haste; he has business in Cuba,
business in the Balkans, many calls to make this morning.
But I will not hold the bridle while he clinches the girth. And he may mount by himself: I will not give him a leg up.
Though he flick my shoulders with his whip,
I will not tell him which way the fox ran.
With his hoof on my breast, I will not tell him where
the black boy hides in the swamp.
I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death;
I am not on his pay-roll.
I will not tell him the whereabouts of my friends
nor of my enemies either.
Though he promise me much,
I will not map him the route to any man's door.
Am I a spy in the land of the living,
that I should deliver men to Death?
Brother, the password and the plans of our city
are safe with me; never through me
Shall you be overcome.

Starve the Fear

2008-01-12T09:31:00.000-08:00

Fear is a potent weapon. It is a natural emotion that can sometimes overpower us. It can certainly blind us to reality. It can distract us from what is really going on. Fear has been exploited by governments against members of its own population or to create hostility against other nations. Hitler used it against the Jews, the communists, the Poles, the Russians, and others to great effect. Joe McCarthy used it to persecute anyone who might even look like a communist, and fear of communism drove our politics and economy for over forty years: from the late 1940s to the 1980s, resulting in tremendous outlays of precious resources, interference with the governments of sovereign nations in South and Central America, and the killing of thousands of innocent people, as well as war in Korea and Viet Nam, causing tens of thousands of American military casualties.

Religions have used fear to wipe out competing religions. Catholics used it to justify the Inquisitions and to cripple scientific inquiry. Puritans used it to justify witch burning in the American colonies and in Europe. The Christian world used it to justify the Crusades against Islam. Even today, Conservative Christians exploit the fear of Islam, while conservative Muslims exploit the fear of the West.

Social and financial classes use fear against the poor and the working class to limit earnings and basic human rights. Racist societies used it against other ethnic groups to enslave and/or slaughter whole populations.

Our own government, even now used fear to launch an illegal war in Iraq and is trying to provoke another war with Iran. They are trying to use fear of terrorism (at which they seem to excel) to rob us of our constitutional rights and turn us into a police state, under constant surveillance, with restricted and monitored movement, monetary transactions, and political activity.

But control of fear is a two-edged sword. It can be manipulated by outside forces, or it can be managed by the individual:

A native American grandfather was talking to his grandson about how he felt. He said 'I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart. One wolf is the vengeful, angry, violent one. The other wolf is the loving, compassionate one.' The grandson asked him, 'Which wolf will win the fight in your heart?' The grandfather answered: 'The one I feed.

Don't feed the wolf of fear. You have the power to look beyond the emotion and decide for yourself whether or not you have something to be afraid of. Fear is natural, it has a purpose: to alert you to something that may be dangerous. Then you can decide what must be done.

This Fear

It hurts this fear
it grabs me by the gut and twists
until I want to double over
and my stomach refuses food
threatens to spill its load

It races my heart
and pounds the pressure
to new heights of danger
It spins my brain
until the walls begin to move
and the ceiling and the floor
try to trade places

It keeps me from sleeping
no comforting rest only
tossed blankets and a punched pillow
while my mind revisits the day
and weaves endless scenarious
of what transpired
and how I should respond
and how it may turn out
what I might say and do
to head it off or if
the whole thing will come crashing down
despair and hopelessness
fear’s evil companions
test the edges for a foothold

It hurts it hurts
this fear like a feral animal
trys to find a nest
in the neglected weed patch
I have yet to cultivate
from which it might coil and spring
take over the peaceful meadow
I have worked to hard to cultivate

It is not my fear
and I lay no claim to it
it is foreign and strange
I refuse to give it sustenance
or let it roam freely
the landscape of my life
for I have looked Death in the eye
and we have an understanding
it is not yet my time to go
and fear has no hold on me

Lakota Nation Declares Independence from the US

2007-12-20T19:53:00.000-08:00

"Indian policy" has now been brought down upon the American people, and the American people are the new Indians of the 21st Century. -Russell Means

On Monday December 17, 2007 the Lakota Nation withdrew from treaties with the United States.

"We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us," long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means told a handful of reporters and a delegation from the Bolivian embassy, gathered in a church in a run-down neighborhood of Washington for a news conference.

A delegation of Lakota leaders delivered a message to the State Department on Monday, announcing they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the United States, some of them more than 150 years old.

Indian in the Living Room

I would like to introduce
someone you have grown up with
refuse to acknowledge
who has made the life you know possible

Hello my relatives
I am the Indian in your living room
I am the First Nations
the original inhabitants of Turtle Island

I am the corn, the beans, the squash
the sweet potatoes
and tomatoes on your dinner table
I am the gratitude you express
every fourth Thursday in November

I am the Corn Maiden, the Two Hills,
the Sacred Mountains, Spider Woman, Shiprock
I am the Kachinas, the Thunderbird,
the Black Hills, and the Buffalo

I am the Pipe Carrier,
the Keeper of the Sacred Bundles
the White Buffalo Calf, Kokopelli,
I am Heyoka
I am Coyote, Raven, Crow, White Old Man, and Salmon Boy
I am the Sun Dance, the Ghost Dance, the inipi wakan, the hanblechya

I am the Indian in your living room

I am the Great Law of Peace
I am the plan for the U.S. Constitution
given you by the clan mothers
of the Iroquois Federation
I am political freedom, free speech, equality,
and freedom of assembly
which you claim as part of being an American
I am the Delaware who allowed Washington’s troops
to survive the winter at Valley Forge

I am the caretaker of Mother Earth
I am the Grandfathers who tell the stories
that teach us how to be human
I am the Ancestors who watch from the heavens
I am Powhatan, Pocahontas, and Sacagawea
who helped the white man survive in a strange land
I am the Brotherhood of the Shield
that used to care for and protect the people
before the white men came

I am the Indian in your living room

I am the residue of Manifest Destiny
I am an inconvenience to progress
I am America’s Final Solution
I am the ghost of Osceola, Pontiac, and Seattle
I am the Trail of Tears, Sand Creek, and Wounded Knee I and II,
I am Baker’s Massacre, Ghost Ridge,
and all the atrocities carried out in your name
I am the guilt you carry for these crimes

I am the Indian in your living room

I am blankets infected with smallpox
I am trade whiskey, forced conversions, and Indian schools
I am slavery, spoiled beef rations, and crooked Indian agents
I am Cornstalk, Chief Joseph, Geronimo, and Crazy Horse,
I am Sitting Bull, Jim Thorpe, Leonard Peltier, and Ira Hayes
I am Squanto, Red Cloud, White Calf, and SuAnne Big Crow
I am the Navajo Code Talkers who helped you win the war in the Pacific

I am a long history of unpaid debts and broken promises
I am the spirit of the buffalo shot from train windows
and left to rot on the plains
I am every treaty ever made and broken

I am the Indian in your living room

I am the reservation
where the Constitution and Bill of Rights do not apply
I am the loss of freedom and way of life
I am poverty and unemployment, alcoholism and diabetes
I am hopelessness and suicide
and I am here to tell you
the reservation now includes your living room
and it just swallowed New Orleans
now we all live here together
Welcome to the reservation
what they have done to me is being done to you
and you let them away with it

I am the Indian in your living room
and I will not go away

I am your past, your future, your heritage, and your destiny
I am that small drop of Indian blood every American family now carries
I am your parent, your grandparent, and great-grandparent
and we are all related

I am the Indian in your living room
and I don’t seek vengeance
I’m done asking for just compensation
Your government is not capable of dealing honestly
I am declaring independence
and you had better respect it

I ask that the people open their hearts and listen
and when you weep
for the loss of my children
as you would weep for your own
then, I will know you have heard

Mitakuye Oyasin

Evangelistas

2007-07-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

I was watching TV the other day, something I don't do often. I don't subscibe to cable or satellite TV, and I am a channel surfer. I was clicking around the channels, which include several "Christian" broadcast stations, and one of them had on a group of old white men, sitting around a table talking about the sins of the world. It brought to mind people like Jim Baker, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and others of that ilk. It gave me an idea for this poem:

Rich Old White Men Wearing Expensive Suits

Rich old white men
wearing expensive suits
pontificating
on the evils
of liberals and gays
and single parent families
preaching about
the coming final battle
good versus evil
as if they wished
they could make it happen
a prerequisite
for the second coming of Jesus
in spite of all the people
who would be killed in the destruction

Rich old white men
wearing expensive suits
strut across the stage
yelling and waving their Bibles
putting the fear of God
in those who feel the need
to fear something
taking people’s money
to pad their lavish lifestyles
and to promote
their own brand of poison
they fund schools and missions
that obliterate and subvert
the true mission of their Savior
that every man woman and child
should be loved and honored
as if each one
was the Creator in person

Rich old white men
wearing expensive suits
never stood in a food line
slept on a sidewalk
filed for unemployment
they never wore a uniform
feared death in battle
lost a limb or a loved one
to a roadside bomb
or a sniper’s bullet
though their dollars
have often purchased
land mines and sniper’s bullets
they never picked cotton
cabbages or fruit
never swung a hammer for a living
never sweated to make a mortgage payment
or worried about health care
But they will take
an old woman’s last dollar
let her think she’s saved
and tell her Jesus loves her
until she loses her home

Rich old white men
wearing expensive suits
are destroying my country
club people over the head
with their Bibles
use Old Testament Law
for a New Testament religion
that bombs medical clinics
and shoots doctors
invades hospices
trampling family’s grief
there is no New World
to which we can escape them
seek refuge from persecution
like the Pilgrims of old
freedom of religion
freedom from religion
freedom of thought
freedom to live however we damn well please

Rich old white men
wearing expensive suits
we can only wait for them to die

Life in America

2007-07-02T15:57:00.000-07:00

Life in America

Put down that plastic
and step away from the sales counter
Visa is not your friend
Capital One
has a place for you
on the rowing bench
below decks

Your house is in foreclosure
the cost of gasoline
is going up again
and the price of milk and cheese
are not too far behind

Your boss hasn’t told you yet
but your job just went overseas
and the guy
sitting at your desk
is thirty years younger
earns half as much as you
and doesn’t speak English

But your Director
is taking his whole family
to Cozumel for Christmas
on the bonus he got
for cutting expenses

And that my friend
is the price you pay
for voting Republican

We're all in this together, like it or not

2007-06-17T09:05:00.000-07:00

At one time or another, I have received emails that either poke fun at the immigration problem (usually at the immigrants expense) or contribute to the hysteria spread throughout the media that illegals are taking over our country, bankrupting our social systems, taking all our jobs, etc.
Usually, I didn’t respond (unless I felt they were particularly abusive) because I didn’t see any viable solutions.

Personally, I didn’t find them to be funny and I don’t buy into the hype. As a third generation native of Southern California, I have always taken a small amount of pride in the cultural ties that link that part of the country to Mexico. After all, California (indeed, most of the Southwest) was once part of New Spain, then Mexico, before becoming, briefly, a republic, and then a state. Without that, the Southwest wouldn’t be the Southwest. In truth, the "little brown people" we seem to be so afraid of have lived there long before there were borders.

I don’t deny that illegal immigration is a serious problem, one that has a serious effect on our economy, as well as that of Mexico. The obvious solution is to lean heavily on Mexico to clean up its act and stop giving people reasons to leave, but no one seems willing to look at the real causes of this “invasion”, that is, until now.

I want to alert you to a real solution. Not a bumper sticker slogan, not a right wing fear pogrom, and not a corporate sponsored piece of legislation that skirts real causes to serve the special interests. This is a homegrown, truly “American” solution that addresses the problem of illegal immigration from a number of angles, including ways to create more jobs in Mexico, direct Mexicans who want to migrate through legal channels, and to help and encourage those who are already here to return to Mexico in a way that benefits them and their families.

No roundups, no deportations, no arrests, no border walls, just good solid economic solutions and incentives that real people can use. I just became aware of this website last night. Apparently, so did a lot of other people, because I couldn’t get into it until early this morning. When I did, I was very impressed with the approach these people are taking. It rarely happens these days, but once in awhile, I do run across something that makes me proud to be an American, and this is such a thing.

It’s easy to poke fun and to spread fear, but if you really care about the problem and people in general, check it out

www.matt.org

MATT stands for Mexicans and Americans Thinking Together
Golly, people working together. What a concept!

This Land

The battle you wage
against those who have lived here
must be your last
they were here
before you were born
before your father
before your grandfather
before there was a border

This land
remembers their ancestors
you have treated it
like a waste dump
a disposable commodity
loving only its flag
and its hollow slogans
while you devastate
its water
and its soil

It’s a land that gives life
while you trade in death
a land of broad horizons
you focus only on profit
a land of spirit
that you bulldoze
and pave over
a home for people
you turn into a wasteland

It’s no wonder
your soul has a hole
as big as the sky

Nothing Changes

2007-06-14T11:22:00.000-07:00

Dark Angel

The wings of a dark angel
descend again in Baghdad
two more American soldiers
return home in wooden boxes
flag-draped and hidden
from public sight
more than a hundred this month
fallen
more wounded

But those who live there
count their losses
in the thousands
tens of thousands
and the war goes on
and the bombs go off
more each day

And those who survive
will tell you
death has a nameand
they endlessly repeat it
as they cry out in grief
and rend their garments

Amer-ika
Amer-ika

It's a New Day

2007-02-21T09:43:00.000-08:00

Spring is just around the corner. The sound of backup alarms has resumed outside my window as the construction crews take up where they left off before winter slammed in. Oh, for some peace and quiet. That's okay. When my next job starts, I won't be home to hear it and it will all be over soon.

I've been hearing a lot of buzz about a new movie and book called The Secret. Oprah featured it on her show a couple of times, and it's been in my email from a number of sources. It's about changing your life by changing your thinking. That's nothing new. I've been talking about it for years. So has Dr. Ernest Holmes, founder of the Church of Religious Science. He published a book in 1938 called The Science of Mind. If you don't like the way your life is going, change your mind.
It's based on a metaphysical principle: thoughts are things, they have power, they go out and do work for us. That's what prayer is. Every thought we send out is a prayer whether we know it or not.

To Pray

to think is to pray

to speak is to pray out loud

to shout is to pray out loud

with feeling

to sing,

ah, to sing

to sing is to pray out loud

with all your heart

I wrote that over twelve years ago, while attending a metaphysical church. The key to the process is finding out who we really are and what it is we are meant todo in this life. Only then can we figure out what it is we really want.

Name

We all have a name

even the least among us

and if you don’t know it

the world can tell you

but you must listen
You can hear it

in the rhapsody of morning

when the earth turns away

from the darkness

to face the bright star

You can hear your name

when the wind stirs the trees

and the birds

wake each other from their slumber

You can hear your name

as the small stream

wends its way

over and around the rocks

and tree roots burbling

It is trying to have a conversation with you

You can find your name

in a quiet pool of water

reflecting sky and passing clouds

as it patiently waits for you

push your thoughts below the surface

You can hear your name

along the high canyon walls

where pine trees shelter scolding jays

the mountain speaks your name

It calls to you

challenges you

invites you to walk in beauty

And now the shameless plug:

I have two poetry chapbooks for sale:

Crow Dreaming

Gray to the Ground

The price is $10 each, or 2 for $15. Shipping in the U.S. is $2.00 for 1- 2 books.

You can initiate an order by sending me an email at edw.hanson@netzero.com

or you can purchase through PayPal, using that email address. Be sure to include shipping info in the notes.

You can send a check or money order to:

Ed Hanson

7630 Leyden Lane

Commerce City, CO 80022

Please let me know if you wish any special inscriptions.

What happened to my country?

2006-06-04T11:54:00.000-07:00

On Friday, it was announced in the local news that a group had put up two anti-immigrant billboard advertisements in Denver. The tone of the billboards was hateful and derogatory. It made me sick to my stomach. Who are these people? Why are they so filled with hate? Does the Statue of Liberty mean nothing to these folks? Maybe it's time to take it down. If they are so threatened by what these undocumented workers represent, why don't they attack the real cause: corporate greed and a thirst for cheap labor, and unfair trade agreements with the countries of origin? It makes me so angry that I have a hard time even talking about it.

Geronimo’s Ghost

Geronimo’s ghost
still prowls the southwest
where Mexican and U.S. soldiers
chased him for years

Hide and seek in stony heat
shadows among sheltering rocks
places he knew like
his own copper skin

Every landscape wrinkle
and hidden spring
only an Apache could know
he wore both equally well

Coyote paths now lead
where Geronimo once moved
shepherding poor campesinos
through hostile territory
to life in a new country

Serve the whims of rich Americans
work to feed their families
hide out like Apaches on the run
try not to be found

Geronimo’s ghost
watches and waits

Where is the outrage?

2006-03-04T09:15:00.000-08:00

It gives me great pleasure to post this poem by my friend J. Dino Delano. It appears in his book Soul's Breath, which he self-published. I have a copy, which I have read several times, and I have heard him read this before, but when Dino read this last night at the Mercury Cafe, it was like I had never heard it before.

MEDICINE MAN III

Ohhhhhh grandson

I care not about the gold you have
stored in vaul'ts, the land you say you
own.

Who's fences keep out human and
animal alike.

Your titles, and your storage of stuff
in boxes, only tells me what you have
forgotten.

I want you to know that from the bay
of the earth, and the silence that sings
within the canopy of rain forest

Comes the breath of your life.

Like a rainbow dove she sits on your
tongue and slides into the rivers of
your body.

Can you still hear the quiet voice that
whispers from the bosom of earht,
your body.

Do you remember how the river you
tumbled into as a child, cooled your
summers hot body.

And that sme water now quenches
your thirst and cleans the inner
arteries, Have you walked in the
wilderness where the city has not yet
stolen the darkness out of the night.

And there in the roof of the sky, the
candles are lit nightly by the hand of
spirits.

Can you let your mind be gathered up
in imagination and flown to the heart
of the galaxy.

Do you still have the courage to leave
the city anxious for riches

And be in the shadow of the woods and
let your body be gathered by the greenn
umbrella of the leaves.

Does the great spirit still send the god
of wind to play with your hair.

Do you still believe in the gods that live
in the skys.

That ride on the wings of hawk and
crow.

Or is your god now mental and no
longer real.

Have you forgotten your voice
grandson

Why has your mouth gone slack, who
stole the wind from your chest

Why are you not screaming

Who stole the rage from your throat

So that they might steal the earth from
your body.

Why do you in yuour silence give
permission to the rape of the earth and
her children.

Scream grandson, scream into the
woods, scream into your pillow, scream
unto your friends.

Scream away the madness so you might
once again hear the quiet voice that
speaks within you.

by J. Dino Delano
Posted with permission
from Soul's Breath, copyright 2004

It is a good day to die

2006-03-03T11:12:00.000-08:00

Second Coming

Let me make it clear
for those
who don’t yet understand

I will boil it down

Not jihad
but Liberal
is the terror
the neocons
are at war with

George W. Bush
believes
with all his heart and soul
that he
is the Second Coming

To the Carlyle Group
the color of blood
is dollar green

Keep these things in mind
and everything that happens
will be crystal clear

King of the Hill

Geronimo had it right

Holding off the army
in the stony canyons of the southwest
Instilling great fear
with just a handful of rifles
He knew that ground
and it knew him

When you come for me
I will not be taken
If you try
it will cost you dear

Better to force the aggressor
to confront the question
of dying for his own cause
than allow the blood
of my own be spilled

Better you make plans
with the counsel and consent
of those affected
than face the labors
of pacifying an entire nation
of resistors

And should you succeed
that monumental and thankless task
what satisfaction derived
King of the Hill
in an empty land
with only your shame
for companion

Hoka Hey!

The Wheels of Justice Grind Slowly, but they Grind Very, Very Small

2006-02-28T11:11:00.000-08:00

Bush's popularity is plummeting, his own party is fractured and in revolt over the port deal.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/27/opinion/polls/main1350874.shtml

Even the neoconservatives are turning on Bush.

Michael Ledeen:

http://rawstory.com/news/2006/Conversation_with_Controversial_Neoconservative_0228.html

William Buckley:

http://www.uexpress.com/ontheright/

Just about any Republican up for re-election:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-na-portassess26feb26,0,5202745.story?coll=la-home-business

Tar and Feathers

Oh beautiful, for spacious skiesf
or golden promise and dream
for hope of many immigrants
for forest, plain, and stream

Oh Manifest Destiny
a thing to be plucked clean
a thing to rape and ruin
a corpse laid bare, obscene

Oh fortunes to be pillaged
mountains to be mined
portfolios to fatten
pockets to be lined

We the People living
we the undersignedt
he tax paying citizens
the ones you have maligned

We call you on the carpet
hold you to account
we who write your paycheck
we can throw you out

Don’t try to take us lightly
we will not be ignored
you’ll find your tenure terminatedt
ar and feathers your reward

"Fascism is on the march" -George W. Bush

2006-02-24T09:17:00.000-08:00

Actually, the word he used was "freedom", but we all know what he really meant.

Excessive secrecy:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/politics/21reclassify.html?_r=1&hp&amp;amp;ex=1140584400&en=aefb4d8fc1e315bc&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin

(requires registration)

Suppression of free speech:

http://www.nsarchive.org/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060224/ap_on_go_ot/irs_politics

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/260424_spies22.html

http://www.unionleader.com/columns.aspx/Opinion?channel=139832ce-97eb-4460-bf99-b71df3b7f0cc

And persecution of dissent/political threats:

http://leenrage.blogspot.com/2006/02/who-are-detainment-camps-for.html

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0221-32.htm

Work Makes You Free

“There are always ways to fall asleep,
but to be alive
is to forsake the fear of blood
And dreams aren’t excuses anymore”
from Bleed Through by Joy Harjo

The alarm no longer buzzes
you have overslept
you can’t hit the snooze button
even one more time

A thief has smashed the walls
of your Neiman-Marcus dreams
and you will never be allowed
to enter dream land again

Even your Wal-Mart waking life
no longer belongs to you
you have become
a property of the State

You now live in a world
where a pound is really only half
where capitalism is enforced
with tear gas and pepper spray
and everything you see
belongs to the corporation

You are not dreaming
you will never dream again
because you traded liberty
for the security
of a split-level ranch style
V-8 leather buckets
9:00 tee time
central air conditioning
Gucci ski vacation at Vail
roaring drunk
Cancun fantasy

And the only thing you will see
from this day on
will be the words above the gate

Arbeit macht frei

Auschwitz
is open for business

Why Do They Hate Us?

2006-02-21T09:32:00.000-08:00

Let me count the ways:

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060227fa_fact

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Memo_that_warned_about_detainee_abuse_0220.html

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article346382.ece

http://www.newyorker.com/online/covers/?060227onco_covers_gallery

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-02/20/content_4202421.htm

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/022106a.html

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/13880387.htm

http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2006/02/barbarian-nation-torturers-win.html

What?

"You've got it backwards, you idiot!"I shout at the television
The clown who calls himself our President
claims they hate us
for our freedom
and not
for what we do
to their countries
to their cultures
to their loved ones
to their children
to each other
to ourselves
to the earth

Stop it!

Ignore What They Say, Watch What They Do

2006-02-21T08:01:00.000-08:00

Today, George Bush will visit the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, in a photo opportunity to push his renewable energy inititiative.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/02/21/bush.energyfunding/

Right.
Last week, 32 employees of NREL, were laid off. Wayne Allard, our Republican Senator and Bob Beauprez, our Republican congressman and gubernatorial candidate for Colorado have consistently voted against continued funding for this facility. All of a sudden, $5 million is "found" to restore funding cuts (at least according to the CNN article linked to above). I have seen several different figures in just the last 24 hours, all the way from $5 million to $70 million. I just don't know what to believe.
In addition, the aforementioned Bob Beauprez, wrote a glowing column in the Rocky Mountain News in support of Bush's initiative for alternative energy:

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/speak_out/article/0,2777,DRMN_23970_4476808,00.html

I guess he has to make himself look good, he is running for Governor.

But as of this morning, per Jay Marvin's morning show on AM760, not one of the laid off employees had yet been contacted about returning to work.

So the questions to ask are:

Will the funding actually be restored and the workers rehired?
If the funding is restored, will it be maintained?
Or is this just one more fluff photo op, all talk and no substance?

Ignore what they say
Watch what they do

Trust

Ignore what they say
Watch what they do
They say they want to stop terrorism
so they terrorize their own people

They say they want to create jobs
so they send them overseas

They say they want to make America safe
and sell their ports to the terrorists

Ignore what they say
Watch what they do

The say they want democracy
yet they rig elections

They say they want to end tyranny
then they invade and occupy

They say they want to make life better
yet everything they touch is ruined

Ignore what they say
Watch what they do

They say they want accountability
yet hide everything they do

They say they want a strong military
yet fail to provide the proper tools

They say they want to reduce government
yet they create the biggest ever seen

Ignore what they say
Watch what they do

Why do they hate America?

Sure, you can trust the government
Just ask the Indians

Watch your back

War on the Environment II

2006-02-20T12:51:00.000-08:00

A $1-Billion Public Land Sale Proposed

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-021006forest_lat,0,1030546.story?coll=la-story-footer&track=morenews

The Bush administration today called for selling off more than $1 billion in public lands over the next decade, beginning with the sale this year of $800 million worth of national forestland.The 300,000 acres of forestland proposed for the auction block includes 85,000 acres in California, scattered across most of the state's 18 national forests, including the Angeles, San Bernardino, Los Padres and Sierra National forests.

Pending congressional approval for the plan, the proceeds will go toward funding rural schools and roads. Future sales of land administered by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management would be used to offset federal budget reductions.

All of a sudden, the Bush administration has a concern for rural schools and roads? And, of course, he can't possibly find the money to pay for it anywhere else, than to sell off our national treasures. Heaven forbid, the ultra-rich give up any of their tax cuts, or we stop throwing trainloads of dollars at an illegal and destabilizing war.
Like an out-of-control alcoholic, he pawns the family jewels to fuel his continuing bender.

Forest

The forest is dying
No
The forest is dead
The Tongass is dead
The Amazon is dead
The Black Forest is very, very dead
The chainsaw is king
Weyerhauser rules the world
The lungs of the world have been cut down
and the forest is dead
How long can you hold your breath?

The Whole Earth Reservation

We all dance between earth and sky

In our dream dances
we see shining cities
and great prosperity
We see far horizons
and many buffalo
We see fat babiesa
nd many relatives
around our lodge fire

In our fear dances
we fenced the broad plains
killed all the buffalo
consumed the forests
pissed in the waters
and farted into the wind
Because we were afraid
Creator of all the universe
would not notice that we were here

Now we presume to sell
pieces of the sky
as the life force
from our mother’s soil
carpets the floor
of the Gulf of Mexico

Where the waters
can no longer breathe
Where the sky cries tears
that sear the ground
Where every mother’s heart
turns to ash and
every father’s work
always returns to dust

In my dream dances
I see the war chiefs
sit with the peace chiefs
and listen to their counsel
and honor them
I see the people
give thanks for Creator’s gifts
and honor them by sharing

I see Creator smiling
because the people notice
that Creator is here
and they are not afraid

Hoka Hey

Ed Hanson

War on the Environment

2006-02-20T11:38:00.000-08:00

The War on Crows

Over the weekend, there was an article on the front page of the Denver Post:

Town under siege

Riverton, Wyo., is covered in crows. Huge flocks roost there in the winter months. So the mayor has given the police force orders to shoot the invaders on sight.

http://denverpost.com/search/ci_3517193

It seems thousands of crows have decided to pay a visit to this small town of 9,000 humans on a yearly basis in January. In typical human fashion, the solution decided upon is to shoot them, at the rate of 400 a night.

Void

There is a great void
a cavity in our collective soul
day by day it grows

It started small
unnoticed
as we moved toward the temporary
satisfations of the moment

Extravagance
indulgence
beame the driving force

Addiction
desolation
A hunger so loud
id drowned the cries of the lost

The world noticed
Threatened by us
the warning went out

Listen
The crows are calling

Welcome to Crow Poetry

2006-02-14T08:25:00.000-08:00

Hau Mitakuye! (Hello, my relatives)

Welcome to Crow Poetry, a brand new venue for poetry lovers, progressives, and ???
On this site, I will be posting original poetry, both my own and friend's, as well as commentary on world events and announcements of poetry events in Colorado, and the Denver, CO area.
It is part of my personal mission: to help to make poetry part of the national dialogue. I consider the following poem to be my mission statement:

A Dream My Size

More than anything
I wish to write
poetry that rattles the Earth
and trembles the foundations
of human experience

I want to compose lines
that thunder across the hills
and lay low the walls
erected by the soul
to hide itself from the world

To wish anything less
would be to pursue a dream
too small for me

Some of the poetry here will reflect current events and contemporary life, and many other themes.
I will be offering poetry chapbooks for sale, both my own and friend's, and I will have an eye out for original poetry to include in a possible anthology, funds raised to go for a yet-to-be-determined charity.

I chose the name Crow Poetry for this blog, because crows have been a theme in my life, and especially in my poetry. My first chapbook is titled Crow Dreaming base on a poem by that name:

Crow Dreaming

Crows haunt my dreams

Perched on the distant edge
of my conscious mind
they call out to me

Whether to draw me
into some other life
or call me back to this one
I am not aware

I only know
I have been away
and
when I’m fully awake
they're gone

Crow is the keeper of the sacred law and the messenger of the great mysteries, the guardian of ceremonial and healing magic. Crow is a guide to new consciousness. Any time Crow is around, magic is also, and you are about to experience a change in perception. Crow is also one form of the creator/trickster god who made the world and causes mischief.

I encourage readers to post poetry. If I like the poetry well enough, I will feature it in a posting (with the author's permission). I will be moderating all comments, so if yours doesn't appear right away, please have patience, I am working a regular job as well. Maybe someday I will be able to make a full time living as a poet, but the record on that has not been encouraging.

Hoka Hey