Friday, November 29, 2024

“Duration of the Land”

 As part of my explorations of the space of experiential research and policy making I trying different ways to respond to academic text. This poem is part of a series that is responding to ""Beyond Settler Time: Temporal Sovereignty and Indigenous Self-Determination" by Mark Rifkin.

“Duration of the Land”: Chp 2 

“Stained by colonialism” *
Dirty rags
On bodies that remember
Who transverse stars
But breathe

The lands that sustain
The time of rocks
The wisdom of rivers

Held immobile

Cause they can’t see
When we skim waves
Here/there/tomorrow
Inheritances/relations

All the same water.

Nipon Kona W 24

* Pg 75 Dale Turner

A little bit human

 As part of my explorations of the space of experiential research and policy making I trying different ways to respond to academic text. This poem is part of a series that is responding to ""Beyond Settler Time: Temporal Sovereignty and Indigenous Self-Determination" by Mark Rifkin.

A little bit human – Reference to Rifkin pg 38

Winnowed
Hundreds
Human sacrifices.
Warriors
Denied a “war”
By pen
By tongue
By design
Lincon
Personally
Choose
Fast death
Or slow?
A little bit human
When it suited.

Nipon Kona W 24

Reading Rifkin: Begins

As part of my explorations of the space of experiential research and policy making I trying different ways to respond to academic text. This poem is part of a series that is responding to ""Beyond Settler Time: Temporal Sovereignty and Indigenous Self-Determination" by Mark Rifkin.

Reading Rifkin: Begins

Consternation?
Temporal aberration?
Quotidian tales
Float in silence
Healing cacophony
Doing it our way
Dreamed pathways
Making room
Ancestors join
Sink
Sync
Ghost ridden
Haunted skins
Lost it all
-Only savage left –
False neutralities
That pretend raw
Is “the modern way”

Gangster Granny
Ladders don’t get you high!
Temporal indignities?
All them layers!
You gotta count
But I know.

Temporal Drag Queen
Hybrid monster
Teller of un-intentional truths
“Survivance is our time”

NB W 24

What you gonna do?

What you gonna do?
everything you chased...
Eagles* said it better,
poet warriors

-Arise-

we aint got time
pens of fire
golden voiced cousins
come close
time to polish
songs from dreams
prophesies in bones
truths in ink

"We may lose we may win"*
be by again
and again.

What you gonna do?
Everything you chased....
collateralized risk instruments,
models fantasy
in perfect detail

Potemkin show girl fantasy
sand castles
can't house soldiers
can't feed slaves
can't sell lies.

What you gonna do?
everything you chased
between your fingers
between your breathes
right in them questions

NanaBjorn Wandering 24

* Eagle lyric to "take it easy"


On Wendybah's birthday

We are star people
made of stuff
Dolly sewn by Wendy. Accessorized by Elizabeth
left overs
you stitched
with steady hands
cause you know.

The thread pulled tight
transforms.

Your vision
visits the unborn
celebrated in circle
passed
To Grandmothers
Leaders
doers
thinkers
makers
transformers
like rainbow bridge

Your last gifts
stiches to add
gardens to cherish
leftovers
to give new live.

Nipon Kona Wandering 24