SUN UP AND I'M ON MY WAY

     The two main poems in "Sun Up, and I'm On My  Way ",  that is  "Anthem For The Earth" and "Anthem For Her Children", were inspired by both the music and the life story of the  country/pop music diva, ex treeplanter, Shania Twain. These two poems are dedicated to her parents, Jerry and Sharon Twain, who lost their life when their vehicle collided with a logging truck. I spent a lot of my life on logging roads, and just about left my life on one of them when our breaks went out. When I first wrote these poems I was home alone and would belt the lines out in a powerful and lyrical song-voice. They were meant to be read, they were meant to be sung. As I tried to refine the poems,they grew quite a bit and, although they say more of what I need to say as a writer and poet, they probably have lost some if there origal musical quality.
    There are also two additional poems in this series, "The Slash-Eater's Song" and "Bongo's Song" .  They came about one night when I read the original poems backwards, and was intrigued by what I read. Maybe this is a character trait of mine, sometimes I proof read computer code backwards, looking for missing periods etc. One other thing, I've only done two paintings in my life,> but on each of them I rotated the painting 180 degrees and painted a different image, back and forth, back and forth, making lines do the work of two images at once.
    Both of the last two poems define more of a unique character.   The first poem, "The Slash Eaters Song", is that of a multidimensional women/foreman/mother/lover.  I like the poem for the strong character it describes. The last poem, "Bongo’s Song", bounces to a different, irreverent beat. The story is part true, part fiction. The  story is placed in a God forbidden contract up in the Yakk Ranger District north of Troy, Montana, right on the Canadian border.  It is one that my friends and I did one fall, but the character’s and settings are pulled from a multiple of treeplanting crews and contracts. Bongo is a compilation of some of my self, (yes, I used that nickname once upon a time,) and a lot of more audacious lead treeplanters I worked with. These two poems are in honor of Mary and Gorden. Mary, a fellow poet, and member of Hoedads, died when she fell into the Willamette River during one of our spring General Meetings. Gorden, died when his vehicle became stuck in a blizzard on Blankenship Road, outside Corum Montana, where so many of my friends and I bought land.
     Shania, a stage name, is  Ojibway Indian for "I'm On My Way". Shania (Eileen Twain) grew up in Northern Canada, close to the Indian roots of her stepfather's tribe.  Hunger often was a way of life for her as a child, and often tribal food from community hunts kept their family fed.   Her stepfather was a logger, and eventually started a reforestation (treeplanting) business.   Working in this trade for her dad, Shenia grew into a powerful women/foreman running his crews.  This power and earthy guts resonate in her music, and add an element of honesty to her songs I strongly relate to. Since becoming a star, Shania has given back these gifts of food many times over to charities that feed and nourish the hungry children of the world. In writing the poem, "Anthem For Her Children," I pulled from this aspect of her life story. In this poem, I was trying to create a feminine mirror to, "Anthem for the Earth, which I had written the day before, specifically, I was mirroring the nurturing aspect of caring for the earth by planting trees, with the nurturing act of providing food and shelter for mothers with babies. It's like the singer, Jewel, says in a song about prayer and God in her "Spirit," CD, "Only Kindness Matters!" Women tend to understand a more nurturing God then men, and while this is an over generization, I do believe men are more likely to go to war over definitions of God, and that in a nuclear age, we had better start listening more to feminine wisdom or we will eventually blow ourselves to smithereens. In my Intimate River sculpture, one thing I am trying to create is a balence of the feminine and masculine energies in nature and humanity. There is actually a helix like spiral that runs through the sculpture from top to bottom, This may not be as evident in photos as it is when walking around the sculpture. It's sort of a DNA thing.
     OK, I was a treeplanting foreman many years ago, and worked with, as well as helped start, reforestation cooperatives for over a decade. Washington. Mostly I worked with Thumb Crew of the infamous Hoedads Inc. out of Eugene Oregon. Later on I worked with such co-ops as Earth Reclamation Projects in Montana. I went on to became a potter/ ceramic artist for over a decade, and am now a computer scientist/aspiring webmaster.  I figure over all I planted close to a third of a million tree seedlings (average 600 per day, over perhaps 600 days, spread over ten years).   The above photo and graphic art is by Malcome Manness, a fellow member of Hoedads.
     During this time period, 1973-1983 I also earned a self designed bachelors degree from North Dakota State University in Agricultural Humanities, as well as helped my uncle, Gerry Lange, start a 500 acre organic farm outside of Madison S.D., (unconditionally, one of the highlights of my life).   For more details on my education and work experiences click on my resume at the bottom of any of these web pages.