Poetry of eternity and Oklahoma

Awe.
When you find writers, artists and others  you should have known about but missed out.

I hate the overused word "Awesome," but that's my reaction to the worlds opened by "From the Extinct Volcano A Bird of Paradise" by Oklahoman Carter Revard.
Published by Jeanetta Calhoun Mish's Mongrel Empire Press, this 84-page book of poetry and thought goes beyond my words to tell you about.  
It is deep.
Revard is an nationally-acclaimed Osage scholar, writer and poet. BA, Oxford (That's England). Ph.D., Yale. Why am I now just learning about him? Click the link on him  and you'll be stunned.
Yet he is as Okie as you can be. It's a book of storytelling, and more because it opens you to the Native American view of the universe, existences and spirituality where all life is united.
The poems reflect his  belief that song, speech, poetry and community making are all linked.
This author will put you in touch with eternity and  Oklahoma. This book is a coup for Mongrel Empire Press. Every time I read part of it, I discover something new, about myself, about Oklahoma, about existence. There is science, mythology, literature, and the author's essays all intertwined.
Consider a few titles, author's comments,  and nuggets.
Titles--Dancing with Dinosaurs; In Chigger Heaven; Driving in Oklahoma; Over by Fairfax, Leaving Tracks; Deer Mice Singing Up Parnassus.
Author's comments--

• "I suspect singing began from weeping and from laughing, turned into choral tragedy and comedy, kept time with rhythms and rhymes of tropical sunlight and starlight...."
• "Without song, no nesting."
• "I wished once again that the anthropologists who keep digging in the earth for our bones would listen for our songs in the air. We are extinct as dinosaurs, are are alive as birds."

Poems-- 

• From "Dopplegangers: A Nativity Ode"--

In this dark house there are no
stars but there is song, the hands
have warmed a bottle, there is milk,..."

• From "In Chigger Heaven"--"We grew up crossing

the bluestem meadow full of flowers
in May, when butterflies were coming out to meet
the flowers at last as equals,...."

• From "Living in the Holy Land" (at St. Louis for the Lewis and Clark bicentennial)--

"Forty score and seven years ago, 
give or take a few Heavenly Days,
our Osage forebears brought forth
on this continent, a new nation,
conceived in liberty and dedicated to
the proposition that all beings are created equal."

• From "Over by Fairfax, Leaving Tracks"--

"The storm's left
       this fresh blue sky, over
Salt Creek running brown
and quick and a huge tiger
    swallowtail tasting the brilliant
orange flowers beside our trail....
"Makes me wonder,
 if archaeologists should ever dig these prints
    with possum's here, whether they'll see
the winged beings who moved
         in brightness near us, leaving no tracks except
             in flowers and
      these winged words."

Tallgrass means tall

A visit to the spectacular Tallgrass Prairie Preseve in the middle of Osage County just north of Pawhuska gives a glimpse of what this country was like before fences and cattle. Thanks to the Nature Conservancy,http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/oklahoma/preserves/tallgrass.html this is the largest remnant of such prairie on earth, of about 10,000 acres.

Few roads, and bison roam free--a herd of better than 2,500...none of which we saw. Yes, there are still some oil wells and private patches of ground, but it's wild and free and the only sound is the wind.

You cross cattle, er, bison, guards to drive down the gravel roads and 8-foot fences keep them in.

The prairie grasses star the Big BlueStem, plus the Small Blue Stem, Switch grass and some others. Big Blue Stem reaches from 6 to 10 feet high, but the root system is deeper. It was once a complete ecosystem, but that is now extinct, although here and in the Flint Hills of Kansas just north of here, it survives.

 We got out of the car to walk a nature trail, neatly mowed, and were soon surrounded with grass over our heads.

To make sure we don't get lost

 

 How tall is tall grass? Here's Susan.

It's beautiful when backlit by the sun.
And there are quiet cool spaces with water and shade too.

Headquarters is at the original ranchsite after a 20-minute drive down the gravel roads.

Check this site for a map http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/oklahoma/files/tallgrass_map.pdf

Woodyard Farms in The Osage

Susan on the front porch of the Inn at Woodyard Farms Bed and Breakfast, just north of Pawhuska.

a friendly yellow tabby prowled at will.

The Osage hills formed a backdrop, and every morning, we could hear roosters crow.

My favorite spot, the front porch, where the autumn breeze is always pleasant.

And the view is peaceful. I worked on a watercolor using the table as an easel.

Our neighbors just across the fence made me feel right at home, naturally. They didn't seem concerned about Iowa State.

This is where we ate in the mornings, and I had the best waffle--a pumpkin waffle-- I've ever had, complete with blueberries, bananas, pecans, syrup, sausage and more.

There just wasn't enough to read, however. Innkeeper and owner Carol  Maupin has been running the place for 21 years. We learned about it in Oklahoma Today magazine.

There were lot of Catalpa trees, with big heart shaped leaves that rattled in the autumn breeze and magnified the sounds of raindrops. It's a misspelling of the Catawba Indians tribe name, which had the tree as a totem.

Autumn in The Osage

Gate in the Osage Hills

9 by 12 Plein Aire watercolor on 300 # paper

I painted the start of this on Okesa road east of Pawhuska in the Osage nation yesterday, before rain moved in. It's wild and free.

Susan and I were in Pawhuska at a bed and Breakfast for fall break. What a scenic corner of Oklahoma. Even more special since we've seen the award winning play, August in he Osage.

Photos to come soon.