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Jeff Hartzer's avatar

Was once told me that no one knows when to clap

for my 'short' poems. Clapping loudly for these beauties.

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Jim Perry's avatar

That first one just slayed me. So succinct but HUGE impact.

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Sherman Alexie's avatar

Thank you, Jim.

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Steve Lovelace's avatar

Loved “Generations”. It took forever to get to 21 and about a week to get to 40. Trees and seeds,exactly.

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Dale S's avatar

As a forester, I love Generations… I could see a part 2 & 3 to this poem. Love it.

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Sherman Alexie's avatar

Thank you, Dale! I hadn't thought of going into farther generations of trees. Now I'm pondering!

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Sherman Alexie's avatar

Pondering Ponderosa Pine!

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Ruth Pilarte's avatar

What a beautiful collection. Thank you.

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Sherman Alexie's avatar

Thank you, Ruth.

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Regina Doi's avatar

if only we could cradle each other now- thank you for your timeliness

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Barbara's avatar

Mirage, Mirage speaks straight to my heart....

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Sherman Alexie's avatar

Thank you, Barbara.

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Donna McArthur's avatar

Me reading...'this one is my favorite'...'no this one is'...'damn, for sure it's this one'!

Well done Sherman and thank you so much!

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Sherman Alexie's avatar

Thank you, Donna!

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Cecilia Camardo's avatar

“Generations” reminds me of a story that a Tulalip man told to me. It starts out, “ A long time ago, the trees thought they were people. A long time ago, the animals thought they were people....”. and so on. I don’t remember the rest of it, unfortunately. It’s one of those kinds of stories that you can interpret many many different ways, depending on your age, where you were when you heard it, etc. I like to think of them as Rorschach stories.

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Switter’s World's avatar

Mirage broke my heart, just as it should. I thought of my grandfather, long buried at Winchester, Idaho.

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Sherman Alexie's avatar

My father was an Idaho boy, as well.

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Switter’s World's avatar

What can I say? You and I are special people. Sure, I spent 25 years working overseas, but there wasn’t a day when I didn’t want to be back home.

I’m writing this very quietly so no one from southeast of us will hear how good it is here. We’ve been discovered. They used to joke about how we were the home of the world’s last guy to wear a mullet. Now it’s hard to find a parking place at Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s.

I was at the local DMV recently when one of the newbies was changing his license plates to local ones. When the clerk handed them to him, he started dancing around and saying he was an I_____n. I told him that just because he was in the oven didn’t mean he was a biscuit. After he left, only a little downcast, the clerk scolded me, well, she actually threatened to murder me if I ever said that again, because it almost made her laugh at the guy and she didn’t want to get fired because of it.

Not long after that little incident, I was at the DMV again and it was the same situation and the same clerk, but since I remembered her threat, I didn’t repeat myself.

“Mister,” I said, “just because you push blueberries up a cat’s rear end doesn’t mean you got yourself a blueberry muffin.”

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Dr. Gabriel Barsawme, LSW's avatar

F**k... powerful....very powerful. Thank you for sharing.

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Sherman Alexie's avatar

Thank you, Gabriel.

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Gael Riverz's avatar

“Prognosis” is my favorite as well. It shouldn’t be because it is a gut punch, but truth is like that.

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Sherman Alexie's avatar

Thank you, Gael.

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Susan Bordo's avatar

“Prognosis” is my favorite. Love it. And so pleased we are becoming buddies on substack!

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Sherman Alexie's avatar

Thank you, Susan. You write so well. I'm happy to follow you.

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Rolando Andrade's avatar

All the poems have an incredible human depth

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Sherman Alexie's avatar

Thank you, Rolando.

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Raphy Mendoza's avatar

All four poems beautiful and so excellently human. 🖤

I’d love to share these on a future post on Three Things Weekly, if that would be ok?

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Sherman Alexie's avatar

Thank you, and sure, share.

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Cheinna Marie Dunham's avatar

Awesome! I wish I could write like this someday, perhaps.

Thanks for sharing.

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Sherman Alexie's avatar

Thank you, Cheinna.

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