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I was interviewing some folks in care centers for a program called Art for Life, sponsored

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by the North Dakota Council on the Arts, and it happened that COVID happened at the same

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time, so I was doing a phone interview with these four lovely women all in their 90s from

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the heritage home near Jamestown, North Dakota, and we were talking about isolation and how they were

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going to handle this COVID thing and they all said, oh, this is nothing. You know, we know how to

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take care of ourselves and each other. And so I just took notes on my yellow legal pad while they were

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speaking on the phone and and then later I tried to find the poetry and in their lovely

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words and their hearts and they all talked about even growing up how fortunate they were

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to have had a chance to work with horses and how that carried through into all of their

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lives and also that they said you know we never knew we were poor. We always had time to

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go out on Saturday night even after a hard work week of work and so there was a lot of

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wisdom there I thought and so I call this the four wise, Donna

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was a small tanger, made

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a man who changed her work, a farmer with a weak heeled lawn,

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several years they worked

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the long and when he passed she carried on she farmed along quarter century she

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talked about the days to come to be afraid she ain't that one ever board

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forces have a Saturday answer cares away

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forces never knew we were among the

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Common grew

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up,

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she loved right on,

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the evening quilts were sown, to warm souls of those unknown, her love to

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its best, until he met, he'd heard all rest,

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Can

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hang her strong fist

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on

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every new tattoo

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Filled with

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forgiveness, good attitude

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Most people

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pretty darn good wife

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Every Saturday, heck

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here's a way

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Donna was a small town girl

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Met a man who changed her word

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Wheatfield

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Well

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it's June,

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last day of June

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And

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a beautiful moon

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A June moon,

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last chance to get out, find a hayfield, smell some sweet clover, alfalfa,

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fresh green grass, especially now we had a little rain.

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June fields, a good night to be out and hang your heart on the moon field.

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This is written on open swathor, watching the hay tumble out into a windrow behind which

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would be cured by the sun and then gathered up to be bailed or maybe chopped.

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You're

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lucky and you hear the words rising up, if you're lucky,

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you'll have a screwdriver

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Or a rusty nail scratch down the lyrics you're being given

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Into the rusts on the control panel

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To

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the morning light

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shadows shallow live fall

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Night will like

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the haze standing tall

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To the reas

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they gather the tape

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It's a legion of winter

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and stern Wheeler wake and feel

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while the moon glazes

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in sweet grass.

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Tonight's the night gang, tonight's the night.

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Well I had the privilege of going to a one room school for eight years, little heart school

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number two south of Mandan about eight miles and I'll never forget that exciting day.

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I think I was probably in, I don't know, fourth or fifth grade, and the book

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mobile arrived. The citizens of Morton County had voted to raise their taxes

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a little, tiny bit, so us farm kids could have equal access to all kinds of

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books, all kinds of books. And we got to go into the book mobile when it first

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derived that first day, and I'll never forget. It was crowded in there because there was

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just a narrow pathway between the racks of books and the smell of the books and the ink

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and the glue was something that I'll never forget and the excitement. And somehow, not

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knowing what book to choose, a book chose me. And it was in my hands. I don't know how

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it got there. But it was a book called Ferdinand the Bull about Ferdinand the Bull who lived

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just outside of Madrid, Spain. And he had been recruited to go to the bullfight in Madrid

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to a fight, but Ferdinand was quite happy where he was out on the hills around Madrid

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under his cork tree where he loved to just sit and smell the flowers.

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But he got recruited to go fight, but when he got into the bullring he smelled the flowers

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that were in the lady's hair and in their fancy bonnets and the flowers that they had thrown

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out for the Matador. And he just sat down and smelled the flowers. And everyone was quite

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upset, especially the Matador. But Ferdinand was taken back to his pasture. And he didn't

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fight because he was afraid or a coward. He didn't fight because he was courageous and brave.

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brave enough to

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To be who he truly had been created to be, long before he was born, brave enough to know his

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peaceful heart and to live his peaceful heart. And I think about Ferdinand a lot, especially

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these days. And I think he's still there. I know he is, I know he is, because he lives

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in my heart now, and now he can live in yours or whoever hears this story. And I know he's under his

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cork tree smelling the flowers cool in the shade.

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I don't know how many outdoor pools are in small towns around the area anymore but

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in the town that I grew up near Mandan. The outdoor pool was the sort of the center of

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well, I'll say cultural activity which is a pretty broad umbrella. And it was the place

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to be, I guess. I didn't get to go in a lot because I was mostly working on the farm.

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But a few times I did get in there. And I remember being warned by the lifeguards, you not

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cross over the rope and get sucked into the deep end and I never quite knew what

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that meant but it sounded it sounded pretty scary and I know that even though

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the pool was closed during the night it was still used so it's called down in

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the water, two, three, four.

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At the big cool summer evening, trying to keep cool,

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they had stuck in, and the heat flew, when they lay down in the warm

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night shed,

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jealous angels shaking their heads, laughing lovers, all the fear fled,

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When

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whenever love is true, there ain't nothing,

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life will pitch you to the shoulder, up the middle, low and over.

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You don't have to,

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wonder, watchin' lifelines, growin' shorter, still the light shines, longer shadows of our lifetime,

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down in the water.

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Whenever love is true, there ain't nothing others,

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jealous angels, smile it all still can.

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Let's all jump in,

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love is,

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whenever love is true, there ain't nothing you can do.

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It ain't always up to you, and you don't have to hit the Homer.

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I love singing and writing and living where I do and, but it was quite some time before

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I realized, I really realized that there was life going on here long before my ancestors

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arrived in the, in the late 1800s and that there was love happening and games happening

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hunting and hunting happening and life

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happening and I had the good chance just by chance when

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I was hauling grain out to the to the elevator and then driving back out to the

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combine where my dad was waiting with another hopper full of grain and then we

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dump it in the truck and when the truck was full we drive into the grain

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elevator in Mandin. And on one of those return trips, it was about the first time I had driven

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the truck by myself. I was probably 14, 15 years old. And there was a fellow walking along

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what we called River Road, which is now Highway 1806 on his way out to his wonderful rich standing

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rock community. And for some reason, I heard a little voice say it's a hot day, hot August,

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day he could probably use a ride. So I slowed down and opened the, kicked open the

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passenger door and he climbed in and the story unfolded.

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In my daddy's old truck, that's chief 55. I was 15 years old just coming alive. He stood

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But on the shoulder, too proud to ask, I threw her in neutral, slipped off the gas.

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I slow on the gravely greed, he climbed in the cab, no eye contact me.

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Six miles of silence, his head held up high, to my question unanswered, I heard his reply.

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I'm rainbow, Kenny Rainbow, I'm a singer, you know

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On the highway to heaven, the journey is slow

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Until I come to my drum, and the big powwow show

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I'm rainbow, Kenny Rainbow, I'm a singer, you know

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His

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voice held conviction, from deep within sight

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Deeper than ego, far beyond pride

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30 years later, it came to be clear he was a keeper of culture, stories to hear.

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My head in its youth passed over his words, a heart held the truth of all that it heard.

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We came to his corner I know I was blessed

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As he called from the gravel Into my past

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I'm a rainbow, Kenny Rainbow, I'm a singer, you know

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On the highway to heaven The journey's slow

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Till I come to my drum At the big powwow shoe

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I'm a rainbow, Kenny Rainbow, I'm a singer, you know

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Now

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I sing the stage lights in clear prairie stars, in holy old churches, in smoke-holdy bars.

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I'm very, I'm very neighbors with song.

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I know I'm a singer, and where I belong.

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Like Rainbow, Kenny Rainbow, I'm a singer, you know.

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On the highway to heaven, the journey is slow, till it comes to my drum at the big powwow

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show, like Rainbow, Kenny Rainbow, I'm a singer and go, like Rainbow, Kenny Rainbow,

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I'm a singer, yeah, I've

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had the privilege of being with many lovely mama cows at their

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time of giving birth and quite

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a special privilege to be out under cold March stars.

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This is before we started calving in May, which is when we should be calving.

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But nevertheless, to be with a mama cow at that special time in the dark under clear,

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Clear, clear, clear, starry sky.

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In the quiet.

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And then the magic happens.

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And after the mama cow has cleaned the calf and

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taught it to nurse, she lies down.

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And I may have given her some dried cat tails to lie

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down and smelling of mint and river and willow. And

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the calf finds its way over to that

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warm tummy of the momma and slides down into that cat tail bed.

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Oh my little dark-eyed one, you who've yet to see the sun, born before chilly dawn,

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by your mama safe

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thirty-far from past the moon beyond the star now you raise and

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lay

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you down in a cat-to

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-cat-to

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-cat-to-in star Venus

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blown

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in a cat-to

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-day

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long last fall, buildin' cactailed hen and tall, put up dry in yonder shed to make

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for you.

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I am not used,

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my soul,

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lay me down in a kindness,

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lay me

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down.