Monday, December 04, 2006

Emily Yipee!/Hero Miles/Crazy Horse

(P1) Poetical

Check out "The Yellow Rose of Amherst"

Did you know that virtually any poem by Emily Dickinson can be sung to the tune of The Yellow Rose of Texas? Here's a good example in the first 2 stanzas of

Poem 27
(to tune of The Yellow Rose of Texas)

Because I could not stop for Death -
He kindly stopped for me -
The Carriage held but just Ourselves -
And Immortality.

We slowly drove - He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility -

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(P2) Philosophical (or whatever)

Donate Airline Miles (to wounded troops and their families)

Regardless of politics, young people serving in Iraq, as well as their families would really benefit from your donation of airline miles to reunite them with their loved ones. I had some U.S. Airways miles that were due to run out next month. I certainly don't need the magazines I could trade for. I donated 5,000 miles to Fisher House, an organization that helps service members and their families. Essentially:

"Your donation will help soldiers wounded in Afghanistan or Iraq to fly home after their treatment or will help their families fly to visit them. More than 7,000 airfares have been donated.'

Go to fisherhouse.org and click on "Hero Miles." It's easy and will make you feel good about at least something having to do with Iraq.

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(P3) Political

In Praise Of Crazy Horse by William Edelen Here are a few poignant ideas about the great misunderstood Lakota, Sioux holy man and leader, Crazy Horse by my friend William Edelen:

Crazy Horse, "Tashunka Witco", in Lakota Sioux. The most accurate translation of his name would be "the enchanted one", or "the one who was mysterious." He was adored, idolized, by the Sioux and the Cheyenne. He was often, out of respect, referred to only as "the man". He was the classic holy man and warrior in one person. He was a loner, spending much of his time in meditation with Wakan Tanka, the Great Mystery of the plains Indians. He and his Cheyenne wife often camped away from the village.

The old ones of the Sioux and Cheyenne nations described him in detail in the late 1800's and early 1900's and what he was like as a person. They said that when he would ride into a village there would be a ground swell, racing from tongue to tongue, saying "the man is coming".

I think that my library contains everything about Crazy Horse that has ever been written. The Crazy Horse image is still very sacred to the Sioux, and the most obscene insult to Crazy Horse, sculpted in stone on stolen Indian land, is the so called 'monument' being carved into the Black Hills. The Sioux nation calls this tourist attraction the ultimate offense. The Black Hills, Paha Sapa, "the heart of everything that is", was and is still, their sacred center, the most holy place of the Sioux nation. To blast out these hills, said the Sioux holy man Fools Crow, is like us going into your St.John the Divine, or the National Cathedral, and carving up your walls and breaking the stained glass windows.

As holy man Lame Dear put it..."good art is not made with a jackhammer. Anything in such disharmony with nature is evil. It fits into the sacred mountains like a red hot iron poker in someone's eyes."

Here's a link to Bill's full Crazy Horse essay.



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10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Emily looks great in the hat!

Anonymous said...

You had a piece a few weeks ago regarding god and love that i meant to comment on--just briefly, i had always sort of tossed aside the phrase "god is love" as the smiley face of the christian evangelical movement; you know, love to the masses without any great, huge religious discussion attached. but in the months after leslie's death, my perception of the phrase completely changed--thanks mostly to all the wonderful friends, family, acquaintances and even people i didn't know from adam who reached out, helped, shared, touched, laughed, cried and just hung in there with me (and my kids, as well). it was amazing to me that, even though i hadn't seen or spoke to many people in years and years, they were there in support without reservation.

what is really, really important in this life is how we treat each other, how we take care of each other, how we love each other as members of the broader eternal family--without reservation, without judgement and without expectation. all the religious doctrine in the world pales in comparison to the simple act of loving and caring for one another.

--bob meline

Ed Coletti said...

Thank all of you for responding to my "one time" call to let me know you're there. The responses have poured in with simple "yeps" to the
response above from our friend Bob which really touched me. Leslie, Bob's wife, had been a long time good friend as has Bob and the kids. Leslie died this past year and leaves a great big void in our lives

For Leslie Meline

You knew how to fly
and you flew.

All this could be yours
and it was.

If there is a further place
you’ve made it your own.

Anonymous said...

Emily sure had a great sense of word flow. Like a spring leaking to a creek on to a river where each drop seems to lift one's spirit coursing toward rapids then rambling, splashing over the rocks (not really obstacles), bouncing off both banks, the left, then right, then straight ahead, washing out to sea.

I'll have to find some of my Emily collection to hum a little as I reread. My books are still in boxes from the move to Nice.

Ed, that reminds me. What tune(s) do you hear in your head as you read your own writing?

Ed Hagan asked me to ask that question and say hello.

Anonymous said...

Ed- I enjoy reading your weekly creative rants and rye humor
(rye as in ham-on) so keep 'em coming.
Frank Ansley

Anonymous said...

Hi Eddie,
I do read your postings each time. They are always thoughtful, interesting and of course often funny. Unfortunately I often find I am "running hard" and unable to take even a moment to comment. I apologize to you. It must sometimes feel as though you are speaking into a void. Thanks for filling that space the way that you do.
Sara

Anonymous said...

I am new at anything to do with blogging, but I read your article on Crazy Horse, and it made me want to comment.

When I was an undergrad in college, I took a class on The History of Childhood, and when it came time for me to write some papers, I decided to write about the Indian children of the late 1800's who were forcibly taken from their homes at the age of 6 and up and placed in boarding schools run by American missionaries.

They were made to wear inexpensive American clothing, to cut their hair, were not allowed to speak their native language -- only English -- and were forbidden celebrating any of their traditional holidays.

The schools were far enough away from their reservations, so they were rarely allowed to go home for a visit, or even have their parents visit them.

They were supposedly being totally 'Americanized,' so that they could take their place in American society and not be Indians.

After being in white schools for a period of time, most wanted to go 'home' but discovered that they had nothing left in common with their families or their culture.

The neglect and ostracism that has been part of the lives of our Native Americans is to my way of thinking much more shocking than that experienced by the blacks who were forcibly brought here.

How can we claim to be a free and democratic society where everyone is 'equal' when this is still very far from the truth. Maybe they should go to court and demand the return of their lands, as people are doing in other parts of the world!

jenny

Anonymous said...

yup i'm here! just bad at checking my email lately...

the crazy horse stuff is great. i just finished "bury my heart at wounded knee", should be a must-read for every american. Summer

Anonymous said...

I am responding.

Monty

Anonymous said...

Eddie I keep hearing ads on TV that say 27000 children will die from starvation each night. That's 9,855,000 kids annually.

I had a dream that the US spent 42 dollars per child for 12 months. We saved all those children for a year for just under 5 billion dollars.

Then my dream turned into a nightmare: The US government contracted with "Hell"aburton to distribute the food. The cost increased to a little over 150 billion dollars for just three months of paretial meals not meeting the FDA Guidelines (or even the EPA guidelines)and then only 10 percent were to be served if (1) they signed an agreement not to use rubbers in the future,(2)not to support gay adoptions or marriages (3)and not to support stem cell reasearch during their extended lifetimes. SUPPORT WOULD START WITHIN TEN YEARS upon verification of signatures contingent on an AGREEMENT TO ANOTHER TAX CUT FOR THE RICH.

In my dream I heard an announcement: "Organ donations from the 90% that die will be graciously accepted by those patriotic citizens that can afford to pay. As long as the decedent's families agree to a discount, pay their own medical costs and swear allegance against anyone that doesn't support George Bush or Dick Cheney's policies and philosphy."

Then,"Hell"aburton couldn't meet the contract requirements and there was no audit to show where the money went. American knowhow preverted again. I am not sure I ever woke up.