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Jack Duane's avatar

Listened to you read your poem...nice ! especially the salmon bursting through the Grand Coulee...if only

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Jan Myhre's avatar

Hello, Sherman, I have no idea what to call the feeling that just came over me. It hit me in my solar plexus and that's all I know for sure. My hope is that I may be as fortunate as you and meet my folks somewhere amongst all the carbon that is floating in the universe. Yes, recognize them and hold hands as we and my brother tour the universe together. Now, that would be heaven!

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Margaret Ann Silver's avatar

So beautiful.

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Kim's avatar

Reading this poem felt like: a really big bell that rings and reverberates to my visceral core. It can't be unrung.

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Jan Myhre's avatar

You said it so much better than I! Thanks!

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Suzanne Smith's avatar

Augh, this one really got me Sherman.

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Pam Reese's avatar

I love your poetry! But I have to tell you and I don’t know how to start a new thread on your page, but I ordered “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian and realizing as I read the first few pages that it was a YA book. By that time I had been laughing and crying at this book. I finished it in 2 days and I am so happy that I read it. I wish my kids had read it when younger (they are all adults now) but I can read to my grandchildren when they are tweens.

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Bruce Jones's avatar

A touching poem, yes but also a variety of options that are each quite valid. The traditions of leaving the body available to the world to recycle rather than injecting it with poison and encasing it in metal and concrete are undeniably better choices. The last of my family to pass was my mother and her ashes are mingled into all 44 of my roses. Every bloom that is brought into my house the past six years has my mother in them. My choice for myself would be to be planted among my fruit trees but we have made that impossible unless I am translated into ashes. Hey, ya do the best ya can, hey?

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Sarah Star Poet's avatar

Love this poem. Thank you for sharing

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Juanita Washington's avatar

Wow! Well done,

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Aaron's avatar

even though it may be illegal your body shall be the one to break this unwanted curse upon us Spokane natives for you are the cure and you shall always be free and that freedom you shall share with your tribe i'm a native boy who is from the Spokane tribe and i would vote for you to be buried in the Columbian River. I also love your books, they are my favorites and you're my idol.

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Kathy Ortiz's avatar

The Atlantic ocean at Long Beach NY, out along the rock jetties that break the thundering waves. It's where I learned I had a home.

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Laurelle Walsh's avatar

thank you, friend

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Logan Darrow's avatar

that's beautiful

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Sherman Alexie's avatar

Thank you, Logan.

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Paula S.'s avatar

Oh man, the newborn part did me in. You always get me at the ending. Every time.

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Sherman Alexie's avatar

Thank you, Paula.

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Nadine3892's avatar

What an astonishing, exquisite poem. Brought me to tears. Thank you for sharing Sherman. How beautiful your writing is, and how lucky I feel that you share with us.

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Sherman Alexie's avatar

Thanks for the kind words, Nadine.

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Bernie Mortensen's avatar

Thank you Sherman. You bring me home.

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Sherman Alexie's avatar

Thank you, Bernie.

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