These Hills Have Dreamt A Thousand Journeys
These Hills Have Dreamt A Thousand Journeys
“The Sun Has Traveled Well” Bardic Poetry by Joseph S. Plum
Welcome:
Greetings and welcome to American Bardic Poet.
“The Sun Has Traveled Well”
This week’s poem is a section of a much longer poetry series connected by the phrase “the sun has traveled well.” It evokes a deep sense of nostalgia for me because the poet used to recite this poem upon meeting up again after some time apart. During our life together, my father and I have sometimes seen each other regularly and other times years have passed between our meetings - usually at a local coffee shop in a small town in Iowa. I’m on a path that’s taken me all over the world. I’m grateful for this. And the poet is on a path that has taken him across worlds. I’m grateful for this.
Yet still there is a part of me that remains a daughter missing her father and just wanting to see his face…and update him on my latest news and ideas. Each moment together is a precious gift.
Good journey,
(The poet’s daughter.)
the sun has traveled well
the sun has traveled well
since the last time that we met
and these hills have dreamt
a thousand journeys peopled
with one hundred promises kept
and all the while
a shadow From this land
across the moon’s bright face
has crept and all the while
the trees are bent with wonder
at the weight of the leaves they’ve wept
and now the sky
can keep no longer
thunder beating in its chest
and now the wind wishes
only to surrender
each and every precious breath
yes the sun has traveled well
since the last time that we met
Read about the poet and the bees here.
Read my post regarding punctuation and editing of the poems here.
Read the poem “Wild Wisdom” and a short essay I wrote about the forest here.
This is a page from the book, I Believe in Seeds: Affirmations for Rewilding, made possible by a grant from the BeWildReWild Fund at Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation. This book combines my watercolor paintings with Dad’s poems, and gave me a chance to try something different with punctuation. Also, it was such a beautiful moment when Dad saw my paintings and realized his poems were part of his daughter’s artwork.
I’m grateful.
I’ll write more next week. Hope to see you again then. Please consider sharing this post with someone you think may be interested in Dad’s poetry.
🙏🏼 Thank you for gathering here. May it be a blessing. 🙏🏼
About the Poet
Joseph S. Plum is a poet in the bardic tradition. He lives off-grid in rural Iowa and composes his unique chant-like oral poetry for fascinated audiences around the world. Joe has over 16 hours of oral poetry memorized in his head. He pulls from this collection of rhyming lines to compose poems according to the energy of the audience listening. Joe does all of this without writing the poems down on paper or holding any notes.
Joe’s daughter, Emily Lupita, typed up his poems over the years and launched Dreaming Deer Press to publish his work. He now has nine poetry books for sale on Amazon that can be purchased on Joe’s website - here.
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