Contents
Preface
Lightning I
Lightning II
1. The Landscape: Prairie, Time, and Galaxy
Earth Mother, She Cares
Driving, the Snowy Wind
South and West
Meaning
Vital Margins
I've forgotten
An Insistent Gentle Animal
I wake up
Hearts and Hearts
Comprehending
Destined
Dream: Quiet Wind
Between South Dakota and There
Knowing
Field of Scars
On This Day
Later on, I will remember
Across the Prairie Hills
Juncture
Crossing
Blind Curse
Foolish Believers
Claiming Territory
To See the Prairie Sun
Sun Prayer
Windtrails carved
2. Common Trials: Every Day
How our lives turn, bending and breaking
Storm
The deer are beautiful, unafraid
Notion of Time
Nothing To Do With Halley
The Possibility
Tonight, a man in a green coat and a gorilla mask
It couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes
Lakota people here keep asking
Searching
Part of the day spent wrapping Christmas gifts
Haaweh Song
Freedom From Scavenging
Origins
Yesterday, the few sunny days
We lunge toward it, driving
Survival in the Cold Dark
Respect and Recognition
Choosing words is a waste
It's strangely quiet
The newspaper cites a tragedy
Driving back from Winner
I make phone calls today from here
3. Buffalo Dawn Coming
A Story of Courage
Never Fulfilled
It's not that strange
A gentle winter wind moves
Dawn
Becoming Human
Our Names
What Is a Poem?
The Dreamer's Song
Happy birthday, Martin Luther King, Jr.!
This morning the sun
The Right Instinct
It was snowing in the morning
There's a bright prairie sun
Never the Moment Until Now
Moon and the Night
Looking for Morning Birds
In the evening several days ago
So it happened. It could have been only a story
The scene is shown on television over and over
Keeping Pain and Sorrow
Too Fast at 45 MPH
Dawn Prayer for All
As Aliyosho approached a spring
No, The Story Is This Way
Coming To Know
David calls Tom a cynic
Joined
Ordinary Moments
Loss and Grief Finding Us
Three. On Tuesday Halmi and I
A friend and I were talking yesterday afternoon
When Is It Enough?
4. Near and Evident Signs of Spring
When Aliyosho and Caballo Pinto approached
Television news this early morning
Stories, Words Finding Their Way
Keeping Intact
He watched yellow sunbeams blooming
Magic Always
More Real Magic
Buffalo Light Now
As we ride toward Mission
Box elders are strange
The Promise We Live By
The Sound, Yours
Gently Now, the Blue Dawn
Beyond the Margin
Creating Language
Lingering in the Grip
Underneath all this February snow
Within the Circle Always
Winter Changing
"Out There"
Once, it must have been in the summer of 1971
Tomorrow Across the Prairie
It's the way it is
One Scar I Feel More
Rivers and Winter Knowing
Too Late
Knowing Shadow and Light
Flying
Three Days Before Spring, Snow Again
Our Eagerness Blooms
Lightning III
Lightning IV