Paleolithic painting of bison (European wisent) at Altamira Cave in northern Spain.
EDITOR'S NOTE: We are delighted to offer our congratulations at the news that poet Lois Red Elk, the popular Mountain Journal poet in residence, has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. We are grateful to you as an elder. Now, as the bears of Greater Yellowstone head into hibernation, Red Elk reminds in the new work, below, that winter has also been a period for humans to dream deep about the living things transcending time, who make us who we are, and inform our spirituality. Enjoy this latest dispatch from Lois on the high prairie not far from the banks of the mighty river, Mnišoše, (Missouri). —Mountain Journal
Season Greetings My Friends With MoJo,
Much needed snow and cold have begun to reach Wolf Point as we enter winter.
So many topics to write about during this season. The poem I wrote for you, Mountain Journal and its readers here is one for us/we to reflect on as one season ends and another begins. So many lines in the poem come from my Lakota stories—beginnings,
creation, spiritual, respect for the other beings that share the earth with us.
During this time of the year my grandmother would say it was time to
come in and dream. Meaning not only to come in the house because it
was winter, but to come deeper into our spiritual selves. And it was a time
for deep dreaming, the kind of dreaming that takes us back to our beginnings
into the cosmos and our purpose.
Thank you and God bless,
Lois
A collotype of assembled single-frame images titled "Buffalo, Galloping" (1887) by Edward Muybridge. Muybridge, a naturalist, was a pioneer of "motion pictures" that could show animation and animal movement by projecting photographic stills together. This piece can be viewed at the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford, University
POSTNOTE: We are pleased that Lois is working away on a new collection of poems and will let you know when it is published. In the meantime, ask for her other volumes at your favorite local bookseller: Our Blood Remembers, winner of the best non-fiction award from Woodcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers; Dragonfly Weather; and Why I Return to Makoce with a foreword from Montana's recent state poet laureate Lowell Jaeger and nominated for a High Plains Book Award in poetry. Given headlines that continue to appear about the discoveries of new atrocities committed at boarding schools for indigenous children, we encourage you to read Lois' contribution to MoJo that appeared in June, The Unspeakable Past Of Indian Boarding Schools
Make sure you never miss a Lois Red Elk poem by signing up for Mountain Journal's free weekly newsletter. Click here: https://bit.ly/3cYVBtK
About Lois Red Elk-Reed
Lois Red Elk-Reed is a poet who calls the high plains home. She is Mountain Journal's poet in residence.
