56 Comments

A more than perfect illusion/illusionary allusion of a response . Easter back when we had rabbits 1994-2020, Easters were more fun and the Holy Lands this year nothing but fresh chaos. Sharing a BunnytownUSA local TV story.

Lots of things here I have tried as newbie to do have blown up. Will see if this legitimate link works.

https://youtu.be/Y0jPK43x75s

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Apr 11, 2023Liked by Sherman Alexie

I like your comment below, Sherman, about Custer and Springsteen. I am half native and half honky, and try to be more Springsteen than Custer on that side.

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Apr 10, 2023Liked by Sherman Alexie

Powerful and thank you.

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I’m reading your poem. I listened to it yesterday with my wife, Cinny. We were touched. As I read it at this ridiculous hour my mind runs crazy. Yes, it is the wild salmon, it’s Juan Crow of the early 1900s in the Southwest, it’s two Black Justins being thrown out of elected office in TN.

I am stuck with being white!! I am sorrowful and ashamed.

I don’t care about Jesus and the tomb. I don’t know how to respond when someone says, “Have a nice Easter.” What the hell does that mean?

I have progressed from having been an ordained Christian minister to the study of Stoicism. Like the serenity prayer, we Stoics are to know what

Is not in our control. So what do I do with racism that eliminates salmon, hangs Mexicans, expels young Black leaders and festers with trumpism?

Stoics are taught to work for the common good.

But I am so weary.

Guess I’ll just go back to bed.

Roger Golden

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Apr 10, 2023Liked by Sherman Alexie

This is powerful and a great one to share, Sherman. Who is the artist?

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Apr 10, 2023Liked by Sherman Alexie

My grandfather worked on the Grand Coulee dam. He used to tell stories about the work and I loved listening to them. Some were pretty gruesome regarding people who died during the construction. He had movies of the construction work but the US government confiscated them during WWII because he was born in Italy and considered an enemy alien.

When I was young, I was so impressed with the engineering feat that was the dam, but then I leaned about all the displacement of people and drowning sacred places and it broke my heart. Now, on top of all that, after working with orca research, conservation, and education, I see the even larger ecosystem disruption caused be the Grand Coulee dam. Since part of my DNA contributed to that devastation, I need to be part of the remedy.

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😲

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Can’t say anything there are just no words that can express how I feel reading this poem. Thank you!

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Apr 10, 2023Liked by Sherman Alexie

Though I don't truly consider myself a Christian, your analogy is powerful. Thank you.

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Apr 10, 2023Liked by Sherman Alexie

The son of God pounding on the walls of his stone prison and can't get out. Salmon pounding against the walls of the dam that they can't surmount to create new life.

= death with no resurrection at all. Magnificent poem.

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Nothing to add to this gem. Perfect in its simplicity. And true for so many more.

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Apr 9, 2023Liked by Sherman Alexie

Jesus Saves. Salmon Saves ....what have we done? Always grateful for your words and the thoughts.

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Apr 9, 2023Liked by Sherman Alexie

Fuck. Really powerful. Really impressed with the simplicity and finality of it.

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Apr 9, 2023Liked by Sherman Alexie

Thanks for your poem. Here in South Dakota we have seven dams on the MIssouri River that flooded the rich bottomlands once inhabited and hunted by the Lakota, Nakota, and Dakota peoples. You look at lakes differently when you realized how much they cover that has been taken.

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Apr 9, 2023Liked by Sherman Alexie

Thank you so much for reading this. I've read those words before but never on Easter. I'm not religious, but once I had a vision of sitting in the tomb with Jesus' dead body and grieving. He didn't rise. His life was the miracle. Suddenly I'm reminded of Frank Snake Church.

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