Last year driving back from Colorado, the swing through Badlands National Park was fog-filled. I posted some images accompanied by Hermann Hesse’s poem In the Fog. This year, we unexpectedly drove back to Colorado and went through the Badlands again. It was rainy and foggy as we headed there, but the sky started to clear as we approached, and the clouds made great partners to the sandstone. So here are some words from Henry Real Bird’s Thought. Real Bird is of the Crow Nation and was Montana’s poet laureate from 2009-2011.
Thought is like a cloud
. . . you can see shadow
When it touches something you know,
Like that cloud’s shadow
Touching the Wolf Teeth Mountains.
. . .
We are but nomads asking for nothing
But the blessing upon our Mother Earth.
We are born as someone new
So then
We have to be taught
The good from the bad.
What is good, we want you to know.
. . .
You can listen to a Library of Congress interview of Henry Real Bird here, including him reading the poem as well as a print of the complete poem.