The Ponca Poet's Podcast

How can we ever get over these crazy old hometowns of ours? In this episode, I land back in Astoria after two weeks in the Nebraska homelands and share some about that mythology-saturated place of 'deer, corn, and lightning.' Long-ago friends are praised, complicated Columbus is loved up on, a poem is read (of course), and the medicine of it all is spoken out into the world. So, grab a mug...

Bonus episode! Found myself once again in my hometown and out came this audio postcard. Enjoy!

"Do Sundancers dream of Short Circuits too?" In this episode, we share a moment celebrating that other classic 80s film shot here in Astoria, OR...Short Circuit! This past weekend was the 40th Anniversary of Short Circuit and the town was alive with fans, actors from the film, and even Johnny Five, the star robot. About to dash back to Nebraska to do sacred tribal things, I caught a luck...

*Annual Free Patreon Episode, Wherein We See What's Happening Over There!* What would any of us be/ without our spirituality? In this episode, we get real and artful and honest about spirituality. It's the inspiration for and saturating undercurrent of this podcast, my poetry, and all of my creative endeavors. It's the light leading the buffalo herd, the engine and mind of the ocean, t...

Who would love to hear an Indigenous interpretation of this classic Grimms' fairy tale? In this episode, I bring the little people themselves into our examination of the Elves and the Shoemaker, seeing how the fairy tale has much actual truth to share about these sacred little relatives. It's time to remember. It's time to laugh. It's time to get our joy dance on and get real about...

With a heart packed full of good stories we're capable of anything! In this episode, I tell one of the classics from Grimm's Fairy Tales, The Elves and the Shoemaker. When's the last time you heard about these magical little people and the cobbler who was getting blessed by them? Were you thinking then what I'm thinking now: that this is a bonafide old-world teaching about our sacr...

What becomes of a person who deeply loves a certain tree? In this episode, I fist-bump a perfectly wonderful day, detail my opening procedures at the Co-op a bit, and then order my morning praise thoughts into a sonnet about the sweet akebono tree I visit with everyday.  For more episodes of The Ponca Poet’s Podcast please check out my Patreon and consider joining the poetry-and-story-loving commu...

As times intensify, we lean into what we must to help each other through them.  In this episode, I read a poem titled ‘The Changer’ and give love to the all the creative resources we have at hand to employ in the face of today’s most recent injustices and atrocities; I also give love to the indescribable flowing life-giving immensity that is Grandmother Columbia River, leaning into Her as I read,...

Is your soul alive with the Original Instruction of always keeping the future generations in mind? In this episode, I delve into the concept/idea/teaching of considering the future generations in everything you do. This teaching is as alive in my people's culture as our awareness of the ancestors and love of our Mother the earth. It's foundational, a guiding force, the right kind of inspir...

This week I'm sharing the latest episode of The Ponca Poet's Podcast from over on my Patreon, to give listeners a taste of what's happening over there. Happy Fall, stay magical, and rock on!!! * Do you remember the first time you came across a zine? The most recent time you flipped one open? Maybe it was filled with hand drawn comics, vegan punk recipes, a tour of the best local bridge...

Stories guide, uplift, cut through the darkness, showing us the way forward. Stories are magically capable of a million things, can transform into a gift, a friendship, a warning, a doorway, an owl with mysteries in its eyes. Stories carry the voice of the Ancient, making the oldest wisdoms legible to our curious, yearning souls... On this episode, I tell the Mongolian story of Blind Taarva, the h...

Have you ever caught a smell from out of nowhere that was most certainly from a spirit? In this episode, I read a poem titled Mouse Perfume, that's about a time I was visited by such a scent, by such a visitor. When I was a little kid my mom talked about ghosts and spirits all the time and now that I'm older, I'm filled with gratitude over how much she normalized both the possibility o...

This past weekend was the 31st Annual Ponca Powwow in Niobrara, Nebraska. Sadly, living out here in Oregon, I was not able to attend. Hopefully things will come together for me to make it there next year. On this episode, I read a poem from The Creator's Game, the poetry collection I wrote after attending my people's powwow last year. I'm so glad I wrote that little collection. It'...

These are some hard, unbelievable, maddening, and dangerous times we're living in. Are we safe? How did such a heartless, only-in-it-for-himself person come to be the most powerful person in the land? I don't have all the answers, but I do know one of the answers is for all of us to keep showing up and contributing what we can to those whom love. In the spirit of that, on this episode, I s...

Humor does a million things in our lives. It gives us strength, keeps us going. It bonds us with the people around us, makes memories that're hard to forget. It facilitates encounters with truth, sometimes even gives us a chance to cry. On this episode, I tell a funny little story involving an early morning drive to work in misty Astoria and a certain tricky banana peel. This story just kept t...

Take one look at the headlines and you can see that we're living in some complicated, scary times. Monsters are in power. Half the country is under their spell. And the rest of us are wondering what we can do. On this episode, I find myself wondering, remembering, calling on the knowledge of my elders, praising the sacredness of my backyard, carving a poem of hope, and leaning into the realnes...

And in this corner, all scraggly and wily and full of oftentimes questionable brilliance, we have Old Man Coyote! And in this corner, all studious and packing his strange equipment and oftentimes questionably good-intentioned, we have The Anthropologist! Who will get one over on the other? Who will recreate the world anew with their storytelling? Who will keep the Indigenous Soul of humankind aliv...

Have you had a chance to see Julian Brave NoiseCat's documentary Sugarcane yet? It's about the Indian Boarding Schools and was recently nominated for an Academy Award. It's powerful, not easy to watch, but beautiful too. On this episode, I read a poem I wrote the day after I watched Sugarcane, titled 'The Undoing Shame Sonnet,' and then I wade into all of that difficult subject...

The Ponca Poet's Podcast is now officially a year old! This podcast remains dedicated to the revolutionary power of Indigenous consciousness and lifeways; to poetry and heartfelt storytelling; to relationships with Bigfoot and little people; to having a good time and carrying prayers for the people just like our ancestors did. Thanks for listening and staying radical, staying magical! On this...

Happy New Year, all of you super-rad Ponca Poet's Podcast listeners! This podcast, this labor of love, this testament to all that sings in the human spirit, to the unkillable Indigenous Soul inside us all, is now a full year old. Godzilla-sized hooray! Thanks for kicking it by this campfire and making it such a cool and beautiful place! On this episode, we all give each other a hug, delight in ble...

The coolest thing is happening in our little town: some folks are here making a horror movie! It’s called The Cycle and is directed by Jordan Downey (The Head Hunter), and stars Deborah Ann Woll of True Blood and Daredevil fame.  In this episode, I read a poem all about my own teenage horror fan dreams, titled ‘That Stack of VHS Tapes,’ and then sing and remember with joy about those times and how...

Have you fully recovered from Indigenous People's Day? Are you all geared up for an all-out Native Halloween that'll truly be one for the ages? This episode of The Ponca Poet's Podcast just might help you with both of these things. In fact, I'm now hearing from the ancestors on the couch beside me, that it most surely will! This episode's featured poem is by Sy Hoahwah (Comanche/Southern Arapahoe)...

Sometimes a story is just too good not to tell. This story, about the mysterious man named Will, is just such a story. It's fun, nostalgic, very essential for everyone to know, a lightweight classic, and possibly not even about what one would think it's about. This goes out to everyone who has a good restaurant story and to all my buddies I used to hang out at Village Inn with back in the...

I just got back from attending our 30th Annual Ponca Powwow and am feeling all kinds of fantastic! In this episode, I reflect some on my experience of being back in the homelands, share about my two by-the-tribe, for-the-tribe book projects, and read a poem written about the powwow titled 'Noah.' It's powwow season on the Ponca Poet's Podcast and we're loving up on all-things-P...

Nebraska magic! Checkstand get-downs with rad Midwesterners! Sweet librarians! Ken from Busu and Amitofu! This episode is packed full and has it all! Having just returned from Nebraska, I’m sharing two small stories and one big story about how that home state of mine regularly visits me in the most magical, mind-blowing, and ultimately loving of ways.  Consider this episode one of my contributions...