This week I'm sharing the latest episode of The Ponca Poet's Podcast from over on my Patreon, to give listeners a taste of what's happening over there.
Happy Fall, stay magical, and rock on!!!
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Do you remember the first time you came across a zine? The most recent time you flipped one open? Maybe it was filled with hand drawn comics, vegan punk recipes, a tour of the best local bridges to write poetry under...
This past Saturday I had the joy of participating in Astoria's First Annual Zine Fest. It was festive, colorful, diverse, well-attended, a unique happening with a ton of super creative zine-makers composing its heart. It was a blast.
On this episode, I do a recap of the Zine Fest, a behind-the-scenes (behind-the-zines maybe?) day-after storyteller zinester's share, having some sincere fun and celebrating zine culture as I've known it. I also read a poem from local poet Logan Garner, from a zine of his I picked up at the fest that he created specifically for the fest.
So, grab a mug of your favorite beverage, give yourself a big do-it-yourself hug, and enjoy!!!
Stories guide, uplift, cut through the darkness, showing us the way forward. Stories are magically capable of a million things, can transform into a gift, a friendship, a warning, a doorway, an owl with mysteries in its eyes. Stories carry the voice of the Ancient, making the oldest wisdoms legible to our curious, yearning souls...
On this episode, I tell the Mongolian story of Blind Taarva, the half-dead boy who journeyed to the Underworld and brought back...well, you'll have to give his story a listen to hear what exactly he returned from that shimmering spirit-realm with. Hint: they are wondrous and still blessing us today.
So, grab a mug of your favorite beverage, spill a bit out for the Bigfoot outside your window, turn on your magical listener's ears, and enjoy!!!
And as always, for more episodes of The Ponca Poet's Podcast, please check out my Patreon. All support is appreciated and all deep-hearted folks are most welcome in our ever-growing little community.
Have you ever caught a smell from out of nowhere that was most certainly from a spirit?
In this episode, I read a poem titled Mouse Perfume, that's about a time I was visited by such a scent, by such a visitor.
When I was a little kid my mom talked about ghosts and spirits all the time and now that I'm older, I'm filled with gratitude over how much she normalized both the possibility of otherworldly encounters and the reality of otherworldy encounters. In this day and age, we need to make this conversation about the Other World healthy, present, and empowered again -our soul requires it, depends on it.
So, grab a mug of your favorite beverage, prepare to hear a poem that's spirit world-positive, smile at all of your spirit-relatives, and enjoy!
And as always, for more episodes of The Ponca Poet's Podcast, please check out my Patreon. All support is appreciated and all rad-hearted folks are most welcome in our ever-growing little community.
This past weekend was the 31st Annual Ponca Powwow in Niobrara, Nebraska. Sadly, living out here in Oregon, I was not able to attend. Hopefully things will come together for me to make it there next year.
On this episode, I read a poem from The Creator's Game, the poetry collection I wrote after attending my people's powwow last year. I'm so glad I wrote that little collection. It's a record of family, Ponca bliss, old friends, Indian humor, ceremony, little people knowledge, and just unforgettable good times. It really was a comfort to read from, feeling all that I was as I thought about this year's powwow from afar.
Grab a mug of your favorite beverage, blow a kiss to powwows past, kick back, and enjoy!!!
And as always, please check out the Ponca Poet's Podcast on Patreon to hear more episodes of the podcast. All listener support is appreciated and welcomed.
These are some hard, unbelievable, maddening, and dangerous times we're living in. Are we safe? How did such a heartless, only-in-it-for-himself person come to be the most powerful person in the land?
I don't have all the answers, but I do know one of the answers is for all of us to keep showing up and contributing what we can to those whom love.
In the spirit of that, on this episode, I share a poem by W.B. Yates, and then dive into the beauty of what's possible in a well-lived life; of what it means to be blessed; and then what it means to have the opportunity to bestow a blessing on someone else.
Let's keep what gives us strength and joy close, keep our visions for a better world alive in our daily heart. Let's keep tending what we love and standing up for what we know is right.
For more episodes of The Ponca Poet's Podcast, please check out out my Patreon. This show is supported by listeners like you and wouldn't be here without you. Weblaho!!!
Humor does a million things in our lives. It gives us strength, keeps us going. It bonds us with the people around us, makes memories that're hard to forget. It facilitates encounters with truth, sometimes even gives us a chance to cry.
On this episode, I tell a funny little story involving an early morning drive to work in misty Astoria and a certain tricky banana peel. This story just kept tapping its knuckles on the back window of my brain and I finally had to answer. Want know what was behind this story's insistence on being told? There's only one way to find out: grab your favorite beverage, invite a friend over (because why not), and give it a listen.
For more episodes of The Ponca Poet's Podcast, and to up the radness of your character, please check out my Patreon. There's a lot of sacred fun happening over there and I'd love to have you join us.
Take one look at the headlines and you can see that we're living in some complicated, scary times. Monsters are in power. Half the country is under their spell. And the rest of us are wondering what we can do.
On this episode, I find myself wondering, remembering, calling on the knowledge of my elders, praising the sacredness of my backyard, carving a poem of hope, and leaning into the realness that we all carry within our souls. There are things we can do. There are always valiant, beautiful, humble, inspiring, deeply human, things we can do.
Thanks for joining me around the sacred fire. Together, we can make it through anything.
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For more episodes of The Ponca Poet's Podcast, please check out my Patreon. Bring your dreams and I'll see you there!!!
And in this corner, all scraggly and wily and full of oftentimes questionable brilliance, we have Old Man Coyote!
And in this corner, all studious and packing his strange equipment and oftentimes questionably good-intentioned, we have The Anthropologist!
Who will get one over on the other? Who will recreate the world anew with their storytelling? Who will keep the Indigenous Soul of humankind alive and kicking against all the odds?
To answer these questions, you know what to do: pull on your Coyote ears, turn on your Indigenous Soul, and give this Old Man Coyote Story a listen!
On this episode, if you haven't already guessed, I tell a Coyote story and have a mighty fine time doing it. When's the last time you turned off the static of the world to listen to one of these old-time Turtle Island stories that come from the mind of our Mother Earth Herself? If it's been a minute, I invite you to join me.
Stay magical, people, and enjoy!!!
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And, as always, for more episodes of The Ponca Poet's Podcast, please check out my Patreon. It's all howls, deliciousness, poetry, more stories, and, of course, much unquestionable brilliance over there. See you there!
Have you had a chance to see Julian Brave NoiseCat's documentary Sugarcane yet? It's about the Indian Boarding Schools and was recently nominated for an Academy Award. It's powerful, not easy to watch, but beautiful too.
On this episode, I read a poem I wrote the day after I watched Sugarcane, titled 'The Undoing Shame Sonnet,' and then I wade into all of that difficult subject matter that is still tearing through many of our Native people's lives, including my own.
Be strong, relatives, and reach out for help when you need to. None of us needs to be alone with happened to us. It's time to tell our stories, be there for each other, and create a way forward that's rooted in healing and hope.
"Indigenous people are still dying from residential boarding schools. And still living, despite them." -Julian Brave NoiseCat
The Ponca Poet's Podcast is now officially a year old!
This podcast remains dedicated to the revolutionary power of Indigenous consciousness and lifeways; to poetry and heartfelt storytelling; to relationships with Bigfoot and little people; to having a good time and carrying prayers for the people just like our ancestors did.
Thanks for listening and staying radical, staying magical!
On this episode, I share a poem by America's current Poet Laureate Ada Limón titled In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa. It's a wondrous poem to sit with under the moonlight, to take with you to work and keep your soul alive with.
And as always, if you'd like to support this labor of love and catch more episodes (and poetry of mine), please check out The Ponca Poet's Podcast Patreon where you can do so for a mere five bucks a month.
Thanks, friends, and rock on!!!
Happy New Year, all of you super-rad Ponca Poet's Podcast listeners!
This podcast, this labor of love, this testament to all that sings in the human spirit, to the unkillable Indigenous Soul inside us all, is now a full year old. Godzilla-sized hooray! Thanks for kicking it by this campfire and making it such a cool and beautiful place!
On this episode, we all give each other a hug, delight in blessing the flowing matter of our lives, take in a poem about a Great Blue Heron, and nurture our commitment to this deep, sacred world.
Sounds like a good way to start off the New Year, don't you agree?
A million miles down, a million miles to go. And dang ain't this journey sweet because we're in it together.
Rock on, my relatives, and enjoy!!!
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And there are always more episodes of the Ponca Poet's Podcast to be found on my Patreon. Thanks for the support and see you there!!!
The coolest thing is happening in our little town: some folks are here making a horror movie!
It’s called The Cycle and is directed by Jordan Downey (The Head Hunter), and stars Deborah Ann Woll of True Blood and Daredevil fame.
In this episode, I read a poem all about my own teenage horror fan dreams, titled ‘That Stack of VHS Tapes,’ and then sing and remember with joy about those times and how much I still love the genre today.
I wondered when this podcast would take a left-turn into horror, and I guess what better occasion than when a cool bonafide horror film is being shot all around the rainy town you call home.
Take a swig from your gargoyle-headed coffee mug, call up your inner teenager, and enjoy!!!
Have you fully recovered from Indigenous People's Day? Are you all geared up for an all-out Native Halloween that'll truly be one for the ages?
This episode of The Ponca Poet's Podcast just might help you with both of these things. In fact, I'm now hearing from the ancestors on the couch beside me, that it most surely will!
This episode's featured poem is by Sy Hoahwah (Comanche/Southern Arapahoe) and titled 'Anchor-Screws of Culture.' It's drawn from New Poets of Native Nations, a fantastic Native poetry anthology published just a few years back.
Get the fire going in your woodstove, shoo away those ghouls outside your window, and enjoy!!!
Sometimes a story is just too good not to tell. This story, about the mysterious man named Will, is just such a story.
It's fun, nostalgic, very essential for everyone to know, a lightweight classic, and possibly not even about what one would think it's about.
This goes out to everyone who has a good restaurant story and to all my buddies I used to hang out at Village Inn with back in the day.
Grab your favorite beverage and get ready to let the good Indigenous storytelling times roll!!!
I just got back from attending our 30th Annual Ponca Powwow and am feeling all kinds of fantastic!
In this episode, I reflect some on my experience of being back in the homelands, share about my two by-the-tribe, for-the-tribe book projects, and read a poem written about the powwow titled 'Noah.'
It's powwow season on the Ponca Poet's Podcast and we're loving up on all-things-Ponca like there's no tomorrow. Bring your regalia and enjoy!!!
Nebraska magic! Checkstand get-downs with rad Midwesterners! Sweet librarians! Ken from Busu and Amitofu! This episode is packed full and has it all!
Having just returned from Nebraska, I’m sharing two small stories and one big story about how that home state of mine regularly visits me in the most magical, mind-blowing, and ultimately loving of ways.
Consider this episode one of my contributions to the burgeoning Nebraska podcasting scene, some ancestral corn-powered, wizard celebrating, Plains river nighttime hymn singing for all of my fellow cornhuskers to dig into.
Turn off the junk of the world, tune into some Native storytelling, and enjoy!!!
This might be my FAVORITE episode of The Ponca Poet's Podcast that I've recorded so far, and it's definitely because I get to talk about my best bud Clark and our magnificent relatives the Bigfoot!
Come join this long-haired Ponca Goonie in my backyard and we'll talk about making gifts for the world, how to strut like our ancestors, what dreams may come in the best used bookstores, and why on some level we might all be secretly made of love.
Turn off the junk of the world, tune into some Native poetry, and enjoy!!!
This week I read a poem from local legend Robert Michael Pyle’s new poetry collection, The Last Man In Willapa.
Robert Michael Pyle is the author of some 25 books, with too many well-deserved accolades to mention here (he wrote one of the most popular books about Bigfoot, Where Bigfoot Walks, which was turned into a beautiful movie a few years ago starring David Cross, called The Dark Divide). He’s a mentor to many of us serious scribblers on the coast and as generous-hearted as a person gets.
Turn off the junk of the world, tune into some soul-nourishing poetry, and enjoy!
And for those hungry for more or wishing to support this and other of my poet-hearted endeavors, my Patreon is going strong and I invite you to come hang over there too. Just look up The Ponca Poet’s Podcast and there I’ll be.🪶
What Native out there hasn't been told to 'Get over it and move on'? In this episode I tell the story of when I lost a friend because he kept telling me just that and wouldn't budge; and then I dig into why we Native people aren't here to get over it, but to get into it and to get into it beautifully.
In which I read Kinsale Drake's (Dine´) poem (Re)location and then stargaze with a multitude of heavy-hitting Native poets, ponder strange ‘mountainside archives’, and proudly enjoy some okay burgers with Kinsale and her dad.