[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:17] I was interviewing some folks in care centers for a program called Art for Life, sponsored
[0:27] by the North Dakota Council on the Arts, and it happened that COVID happened at the same
[0:33] time, so I was doing a phone interview with these four lovely women all in their 90s from
[0:40] the heritage home near Jamestown, North Dakota, and we were talking about isolation and how they were
[0:49] going to handle this COVID thing and they all said, oh, this is nothing. You know, we know how to
[0:57] take care of ourselves and each other. And so I just took notes on my yellow legal pad while they were
[1:05] speaking on the phone and and then later I tried to find the poetry and in their lovely
[1:11] words and their hearts and they all talked about even growing up how fortunate they were
[1:19] to have had a chance to work with horses and how that carried through into all of their
[1:24] lives and also that they said you know we never knew we were poor. We always had time to
[1:32] go out on Saturday night even after a hard work week of work and so there was a lot of
[1:41] wisdom there I thought and so I call this the four wise, Donna
[1:57] was a small tanger, made
[2:01] a man who changed her work, a farmer with a weak heeled lawn,
[2:12] several years they worked
[2:14] the long and when he passed she carried on she farmed along quarter century she
[2:29] talked about the days to come to be afraid she ain't that one ever board
[2:46] forces have a Saturday answer cares away
[2:54] forces never knew we were among the
[2:59] Common grew
[3:11] up,
[3:15] she loved right on,
[3:27] the evening quilts were sown, to warm souls of those unknown, her love to
[3:45] its best, until he met, he'd heard all rest,
[3:50] Can
[4:02] hang her strong fist
[4:47] on
[4:54] every new tattoo
[4:59] Filled with
[5:03] forgiveness, good attitude
[5:09] Most people
[5:20] pretty darn good wife
[5:35] Every Saturday, heck
[5:55] here's a way
[6:17] Donna was a small town girl
[6:21] Met a man who changed her word
[6:30] Wheatfield
[6:31] Well
[6:46] it's June,
[6:49] last day of June
[6:50] And
[6:54] a beautiful moon
[6:55] A June moon,
[7:01] last chance to get out, find a hayfield, smell some sweet clover, alfalfa,
[7:10] fresh green grass, especially now we had a little rain.
[7:20] June fields, a good night to be out and hang your heart on the moon field.
[7:27] This is written on open swathor, watching the hay tumble out into a windrow behind which
[7:36] would be cured by the sun and then gathered up to be bailed or maybe chopped.
[7:43] You're
[8:04] lucky and you hear the words rising up, if you're lucky,
[8:14] you'll have a screwdriver
[8:15] Or a rusty nail scratch down the lyrics you're being given
[8:24] Into the rusts on the control panel
[8:27] To
[8:38] the morning light
[8:43] shadows shallow live fall
[8:47] Night will like
[8:53] the haze standing tall
[8:55] To the reas
[9:02] they gather the tape
[9:06] It's a legion of winter
[9:12] and stern Wheeler wake and feel
[11:10] while the moon glazes
[11:33] in sweet grass.
[12:28] Tonight's the night gang, tonight's the night.
[12:31] Well I had the privilege of going to a one room school for eight years, little heart school
[12:36] number two south of Mandan about eight miles and I'll never forget that exciting day.
[12:43] I think I was probably in, I don't know, fourth or fifth grade, and the book
[12:50] mobile arrived. The citizens of Morton County had voted to raise their taxes
[12:57] a little, tiny bit, so us farm kids could have equal access to all kinds of
[13:04] books, all kinds of books. And we got to go into the book mobile when it first
[13:09] derived that first day, and I'll never forget. It was crowded in there because there was
[13:15] just a narrow pathway between the racks of books and the smell of the books and the ink
[13:22] and the glue was something that I'll never forget and the excitement. And somehow, not
[13:30] knowing what book to choose, a book chose me. And it was in my hands. I don't know how
[13:41] it got there. But it was a book called Ferdinand the Bull about Ferdinand the Bull who lived
[13:49] just outside of Madrid, Spain. And he had been recruited to go to the bullfight in Madrid
[13:58] to a fight, but Ferdinand was quite happy where he was out on the hills around Madrid
[14:10] under his cork tree where he loved to just sit and smell the flowers.
[14:15] But he got recruited to go fight, but when he got into the bullring he smelled the flowers
[14:23] that were in the lady's hair and in their fancy bonnets and the flowers that they had thrown
[14:29] out for the Matador. And he just sat down and smelled the flowers. And everyone was quite
[14:38] upset, especially the Matador. But Ferdinand was taken back to his pasture. And he didn't
[14:47] fight because he was afraid or a coward. He didn't fight because he was courageous and brave.
[14:58] brave enough to
[15:00] To be who he truly had been created to be, long before he was born, brave enough to know his
[15:09] peaceful heart and to live his peaceful heart. And I think about Ferdinand a lot, especially
[15:16] these days. And I think he's still there. I know he is, I know he is, because he lives
[15:25] in my heart now, and now he can live in yours or whoever hears this story. And I know he's under his
[15:35] cork tree smelling the flowers cool in the shade.
[19:47] I don't know how many outdoor pools are in small towns around the area anymore but
[19:54] in the town that I grew up near Mandan. The outdoor pool was the sort of the center of
[20:02] well, I'll say cultural activity which is a pretty broad umbrella. And it was the place
[20:09] to be, I guess. I didn't get to go in a lot because I was mostly working on the farm.
[20:16] But a few times I did get in there. And I remember being warned by the lifeguards, you not
[20:23] cross over the rope and get sucked into the deep end and I never quite knew what
[20:32] that meant but it sounded it sounded pretty scary and I know that even though
[20:39] the pool was closed during the night it was still used so it's called down in
[20:48] the water, two, three, four.
[21:07] At the big cool summer evening, trying to keep cool,
[21:13] they had stuck in, and the heat flew, when they lay down in the warm
[21:25] night shed,
[21:27] jealous angels shaking their heads, laughing lovers, all the fear fled,
[21:34] When
[21:39] whenever love is true, there ain't nothing,
[21:57] life will pitch you to the shoulder, up the middle, low and over.
[22:05] You don't have to,
[22:14] wonder, watchin' lifelines, growin' shorter, still the light shines, longer shadows of our lifetime,
[22:27] down in the water.
[22:28] Whenever love is true, there ain't nothing others,
[23:01] jealous angels, smile it all still can.
[23:08] Let's all jump in,
[23:18] love is,
[23:46] whenever love is true, there ain't nothing you can do.
[23:51] It ain't always up to you, and you don't have to hit the Homer.
[23:58] I love singing and writing and living where I do and, but it was quite some time before
[24:10] I realized, I really realized that there was life going on here long before my ancestors
[24:17] arrived in the, in the late 1800s and that there was love happening and games happening
[24:23] hunting and hunting happening and life
[24:30] happening and I had the good chance just by chance when
[24:37] I was hauling grain out to the to the elevator and then driving back out to the
[24:43] combine where my dad was waiting with another hopper full of grain and then we
[24:48] dump it in the truck and when the truck was full we drive into the grain
[24:52] elevator in Mandin. And on one of those return trips, it was about the first time I had driven
[24:58] the truck by myself. I was probably 14, 15 years old. And there was a fellow walking along
[25:05] what we called River Road, which is now Highway 1806 on his way out to his wonderful rich standing
[25:13] rock community. And for some reason, I heard a little voice say it's a hot day, hot August,
[25:23] day he could probably use a ride. So I slowed down and opened the, kicked open the
[25:31] passenger door and he climbed in and the story unfolded.
[25:49] In my daddy's old truck, that's chief 55. I was 15 years old just coming alive. He stood
[25:59] But on the shoulder, too proud to ask, I threw her in neutral, slipped off the gas.
[26:12] I slow on the gravely greed, he climbed in the cab, no eye contact me.
[26:22] Six miles of silence, his head held up high, to my question unanswered, I heard his reply.
[26:31] I'm rainbow, Kenny Rainbow, I'm a singer, you know
[26:36] On the highway to heaven, the journey is slow
[26:40] Until I come to my drum, and the big powwow show
[26:45] I'm rainbow, Kenny Rainbow, I'm a singer, you know
[26:50] His
[26:55] voice held conviction, from deep within sight
[26:59] Deeper than ego, far beyond pride
[27:04] 30 years later, it came to be clear he was a keeper of culture, stories to hear.
[27:14] My head in its youth passed over his words, a heart held the truth of all that it heard.
[27:24] We came to his corner I know I was blessed
[27:29] As he called from the gravel Into my past
[27:35] I'm a rainbow, Kenny Rainbow, I'm a singer, you know
[27:40] On the highway to heaven The journey's slow
[27:44] Till I come to my drum At the big powwow shoe
[27:49] I'm a rainbow, Kenny Rainbow, I'm a singer, you know
[27:53] Now
[27:59] I sing the stage lights in clear prairie stars, in holy old churches, in smoke-holdy bars.
[28:09] I'm very, I'm very neighbors with song.
[28:14] I know I'm a singer, and where I belong.
[28:18] Like Rainbow, Kenny Rainbow, I'm a singer, you know.
[28:22] On the highway to heaven, the journey is slow, till it comes to my drum at the big powwow
[28:32] show, like Rainbow, Kenny Rainbow, I'm a singer and go, like Rainbow, Kenny Rainbow,
[28:41] I'm a singer, yeah, I've
[29:07] had the privilege of being with many lovely mama cows at their
[29:14] time of giving birth and quite
[29:29] a special privilege to be out under cold March stars.
[29:34] This is before we started calving in May, which is when we should be calving.
[29:44] But nevertheless, to be with a mama cow at that special time in the dark under clear,
[29:54] Clear, clear, clear, starry sky.
[30:03] In the quiet.
[30:08] And then the magic happens.
[30:20] And after the mama cow has cleaned the calf and
[30:26] taught it to nurse, she lies down.
[30:33] And I may have given her some dried cat tails to lie
[30:38] down and smelling of mint and river and willow. And
[30:48] the calf finds its way over to that
[30:50] warm tummy of the momma and slides down into that cat tail bed.
[31:01] Oh my little dark-eyed one, you who've yet to see the sun, born before chilly dawn,
[31:14] by your mama safe
[31:25] thirty-far from past the moon beyond the star now you raise and
[31:39] lay
[31:39] you down in a cat-to
[31:49] -cat-to
[31:54] -cat-to-in star Venus
[32:01] blown
[32:08] in a cat-to
[32:25] -day
[32:25] long last fall, buildin' cactailed hen and tall, put up dry in yonder shed to make
[32:38] for you.
[32:48] I am not used,
[32:58] my soul,
[33:03] lay me down in a kindness,
[33:26] lay me
[33:34] down.