August 13, 2011 by

I’m just back from the Fort Hall Reservation powwow.
Powwows always make me cry.
I can’t help but feel like I’m watching caged things learn to fly again.
They stomp around out there in a glorious swirl of color, texture and flash
and I feel the mustang of my heart rear up and the bison of my soul snort…

They dance like the wind.

I sat on damp grass between drum crews.
I felt the thud, deep in my marrow…over and over again…pushing blood through my body with the power of a freight train.
When the singing started, I think I sprouted wings.
I had to cover my ears or go deaf for the glory of it all.

There were dancers from Saskatchewan, 
a drummer beside me from Alberta.
There was a joke about Regina.
I felt like my home was rooted all around me.
I felt ashamed for my blond hair, I wished it raven black.
I wanted to wear something beaded and bold.
My cowboy boots were especially turquoise under the night lights.
A moth tangled itself in my hair.

Sun rise.
Moon shine.
Human flight.
Powwow.

https://www.thenoisyplume.com/blog/2011/08/13/1069/

Filed Under: bannock, fort hall reservation, i'm a wild thing, native american, powwow, shoshone
August 12, 2011 by
Have I told you?
Have I told you that after RW and I eloped in Reno, we moved to Alaska to work for a rafting company?
Well, it’s true.
I felt right at home there, being a Northerner by birth.
Our one room cabin was small, sweet and shabby — our outhouse was stalwart and populated with desperate mosquitoes.
In the summer, when we were bored at midnight and still awake beneath a bright sky, we went fishing.
RW taught me to fish on the fly
and the trout were greedy, leaping rainbows under the sun that never sets.

I always forget about how much I belong up North,
 until I return,
and it becomes so apparent to me once more
that I feel eternally sad and eternally glad
all at once
in my heart of hearts.
 [sweetheart oldtimers]
Alaska was, as always, so right.
So quiet.  So still on my soul.
So reflective and so cozy with (such very good) good company (perhaps soul family?), good food and copious cups of tea.
A home away from home (sometimes, I seem to have so many of those…).
I’m glad to be home in Idaho, with my pack, with my ripe and earthy beets roasting in the oven and the West bench gleaming in the sunshine.

Life is so good.
Everything is pretty awesome.
Even when it’s crummy, it’s good.
What does that even mean?
Well, I think it means, there’s this small flame lit in my heart, most permanently, most unwaveringly, and even when the darkness descends there’s a light here and the shadows are made merry.  
I don’t know what to call this light.  
Perhaps.  
Soul borealis.

Yes.
Soul borealis.

I go North and I miss RW.
RW, come home.
I miss you.
Take me North.
I love you.
Keep your boots together on your landings.
If the flames lick your heels, run fast.
Run to me.

And.
Dear Alaska,
Rise up.  Always rise up.  Wild and free.
Bright and lonesome.
Starfall and water rush.
Silver salmon and wolf howl.
Green flicker of sky lights and purity of snow.
I love you so.

xx
The Duchess of the Hinterlands


https://www.thenoisyplume.com/blog/2011/08/12/1067/

Filed Under: alaska, random junk
August 11, 2011 by
Hello Chickadees!
I’ve been away adventuring, but now I’m home.
I hope you’re all well.
xx

https://www.thenoisyplume.com/blog/2011/08/11/1066/

Filed Under: alaska
August 5, 2011 by
She’s so photogenic lately.


Happy weekending, 
you sweet batch of beets.
xx
___________________________________________________


PS 


The most spectacular thing I’ve seen all week?


Just now, whilst running my ten mile loop on the mountain,
I saw a red tailed hawk flying with an impossibly 
large snake in its talons.
It was beautiful, dreadful and wild.
I’m convinced it was a once in a lifetime sighting.


How about you?

https://www.thenoisyplume.com/blog/2011/08/05/1065/

Filed Under: german shorthaired pointer, Plumbelina
August 5, 2011 by
1.  
The Small Bodies Ring has already been claimed, but I wanted to share it here anyway.
It was inspired by the Weston Pepper, one of my very favorite photographs of late…so sensual and smooth.
___________________

what is this small body 
compared to the good and holy works of god
the rustle of distant thunder
the vast curve of an egg

what is this small body
this ether home
this other world

weather runs beneath my skin
these eyes are for setting sail
ample hide
delicate bones
tectonics beneath the surface

and the smooth meeting of hip and waist
2.  
Oh this day, on this amazing day, I fell on my work so ravenously.
I thought I’d devour the metal and stone 
like some wild thing fresh out of a pit.
Now that I read that last sentence, 
I’m convinced that it’s not far from the truth.

I am a wild thing.
I ate it up.
I was wild with recklessness, sawing huge portions of silver without a thought or care for metal prices, 
without a thought or care.
I whacked at it all with hammers and wood while 
singing at the top of my lungs.
And when the work was finished, 
I declared it good.

3.  
Currently, it is pouring rain outside.
Thunder is shaking the turquoise beads I have in a small bowl on my office desk.
I can feel my pupils constrict a tiny fraction with each strip of lightning that laces the heavens.
I think.
I think.
I think the 104 year old stone foundation of this house might crumble.
Sometimes I think my foundation might crumble, but then I remember, I have built my house upon The Rock. 

Farley has curled up around my left ankle.
His animal warmth spreads from there
and encircles my heart.
He knows he is so good for me.
4.  
Today!  The mail! 
Incredible!
I have been in a postal drought.
Today, five packages and one letter 
(and a tidy handful of crap that I promptly recycled).
My evening will look like :
and THIS — which was recommended to me by a dear friend who said Temple Grandin reminds her of me (which isn’t the first time someone has implied, or asked, if I am mildly autistic — take that as you will..as I’ve said before, I can get a bit focused on things…).

5.  
This afternoon I crafted a fertility “talisman” for
one of my dearest friends.  It was such an honor to be asked for such a thing in the first place.  When it was finished, it resonated with hope, comfort, contentment, fullness, love, grace and a dash of the divine (there’s so much divinity in conception). I realized how deeply personal it seemed to me (for her) so I did not photograph it but let me tell you, boy howdy, my fertility talismans never fail.  My friend will have a bun in the oven in no time!  If it’s a boy, I hope she names it Gino…because I like that name lately.


The End

https://www.thenoisyplume.com/blog/2011/08/05/1064/

Filed Under: New Jewelry, randomness
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