july 4 state of the union, take one tyranny is a tinny sound that the orange fellow makes in front of reflecting pools wah wah wah which is wail in English but in Urdu, it's what you say two times when the poet just kills it. tyranny is talking ourselves out of remembering we are also the wild dark ones made of mystery following our gut and smells of other animals in caves highways byways bus stops We have lost our animal selves, ceded the cave for the picket fence, lost the howl, the sharp...
8 days ago • 2 min read
June 29, 2026 these are not the droids you've been looking forbut they arrived anyway as branch as tree as darkAsk a river and it will tell you that the eyes lost it at twelve the first sight of star wars in a boarding school auditorium on VHS no less the only thing I saw clearly were the shining eyes of the sand people glinting red and those two suns he longed for at sunset longing longing yearning yearning elsewhere came ~ prelude to starry starry future river episode one:what is your given...
12 days ago • 1 min read
June 22, 2026 There are stones, branches and futures you see in rivers that you cannot see in other bodies of water. A river is on its way somewhere else and in that way, it is like time. It has its eye on some future spot, where it meets another body of water and changes. Ergo, therefore: when in doubt about the future, ask a river! …is my Solstice insight from yesterday. I walked along the Animas river in Aztec, New Mexico and put my hands in the water. And I saw the future and it was...
19 days ago • 4 min read
June 12, 2026 You know that quiet before the storm rises in you and shows you what you are going to make a noise about? There you are on deck, facing the sea, sensing the winds are about to change, but with no idea from which direction they are going to come. Or how strong they will be. Or how big. Whether the boat will stand the impact. Whether you will. You don’t know. All you sense is that what is coming means a change of direction. cha cha change. And unlike Robert Redford in that movie...
30 days ago • 3 min read
April 22, 2026 Thrilled to share Three poets on Earth Day Lea Lewis with whom I've been writing since 2016! and whose poems I'm so honored to share on the blog AND Claire Booqua who showed up - on break from high school! - and delighted us all last spring at A:shiwi Tribal College AND an oldie but goodie from me, called CREED from way back in 2011 when I was young and sooo in love with New Mexico which I had only gotten to know, really know, in 2009. What happened at that time was - I fell in...
3 months ago • 3 min read
corn mountain photo from a:shiwi.org April 11, 2026 Spring greetings, dear friends. I know it’s a tough world out there but we have poetry here. Come in, the stew is on! I am a rung on a ladder. Inside me, are ladders of ancient buildings.* Have a look at new writing from wondrous writers from the A:shiwi community (Zuni pueblo) on the Ancestral Nature blog. This is the first group of writers - with more to come. Valarie Bellson Tiyana Haloo Chris Hustito Diana Kostelecky Vanessa Yuselew Down...
3 months ago • 1 min read
March 6, 2026 Hi everyone, Well - it feels a little surreal—I didn’t expect to be texting relatives in the Middle East last week asking, “Are you safe?” while at the same time preparing for a live reading of a play I wrote with that exact title. But that’s what’s happening. There will be a live stream reading of my play are you safe [or “the occupation of love”] on Monday, March 9 at 11 am MT as part of La MaMa Experiments Play Reading Series. The reading will be live from Ramallah, with...
4 months ago • 1 min read
February 18, 2026 In this first day of a fire horse year chosen in a calendar of human making ----- [Tsagaan Saar in Mongolia ----- Tsaagan sariin mend hurgie!] I am in Kerry by the Irish sea looking to hope …even in grim times as a friend and activist in Minnesota wrote me At the Éigse na Brideoige festival , I improvised a dance for Scéine - lost to the sea and her husband Amergin a story I have loved these many years At Cill Rialaig Arts Centre, I danced to old Hindi film songs submitting...
5 months ago • 1 min read
January 13, 2026 Dear all: Oh my goodness— while the year is still new-ish, I couldn't wait to share two new pieces up on the Ancestral Nature blog: Maya Galimidi writes so tenderly about the unexpected gift of a tree in Istanbul + I share an experience of Sufi whirling dervishes— both pieces disarm me with such hope, honestly. Maya Galimidi The Pine Tree’s Ring — A New Myth for Women Who Keep Walking (by Maya Galimidi) Anchored in Movement: Enter the Dervish (by me) yours in hope Shebana...
6 months ago • 1 min read
