2—The Diploemat

March-April 2012

2012 NATIVE AMERICAN LAUREATE POEM

Seven Ways to Prepare for Lengthening Days

Wash your hair with lavender water
and air dry outside your front door.
This is the way
we come clean.

Sweep your home
and fill the space with kindness.
This is the way
we make space.

Burn pine needles in bundles
And gently blow out the flame.
This is the way
we clean the air.

Collect porcupine quills
and blue jay feathers.
This is the way
we find words.





Neal Whitman         
(Badger Bob White)         
Pacific Grove, California         
Whitman@whitmanassociates.org        

Make signals in shallow water
and wave to stones.
This is the way
we welcome guests

Sit under the early evening sky
and wait for the first star.
This is the way
we enter the universe.

Hold the moon in your chest
and have a pure heart.
This is the way
we love.

2012 CALF AWARD WINNERS

Cindy Bechtold
Lehi, Utah
WISDOM

Dr. Charles A. Stone
San Antonio, Texas
ONE FEATHER, TWO SKIES

Click here to read these poems and names of poets who won 19 online awards

2012 White Buffalo Native American Poet Laureate Winners

2012 Literary Challenge:
SHARE ADVENTURES IN GREAT SPIRIT THROUGH A DREAM CATCHER’S EYE

Many entries in the White Buffalo contests have been about the spirit of the Great Spirit rather than in the Spirit of Great Spirit. What’s the difference?

There is a subtle dynamic force that infuses words with an essence that combines being about with being in the spirit. It's as powerful as sperm and egg conjoining in the big bang of fusion that kicks off the new life from all mundane (physical) or mystical (mental/spiritual) mating.

Fission is the result, fission which lasts as long as a human lifetime such as yours, or an idea’s lifespan, or a lifetime in just one day as some insect species experience.

That’s being in spirit. So, what exactly does “in the spirit of Great Spirit” mean?

Rembrandt attempted to capture spirit as light in his paintings. The Native American spirit Barbara Callahan Quin is seeking for inclusion in this year’s anthology is the verbal equivalent of light as Rembrandt strove to vivify it, and with which indigenous peoples merged in Nature. Some actually were as eagles, able to project mind and spirit to soar above the physical realm.

We moderns can do it, with practice, but our customs and culture have seemingly placed the Great Spirit realm of our ancestors out of reach, like the unknowable Yawheh or personal Jesus, or even lesser hero figures such as Superman, Wonder Woman or Spiderman. . . except in dreams. The literary challenge might be easier if you practice our Dream Catcher Meditation, although it isn’t mandatory. The exercise is perfectly safe and will take only a few minutes of uninterrupted time. It becomes easier with practice. Concentration is the key to mastery. Check it out, then decide. Click the dream catcher above for details.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

Printable copy of page 2