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riding the high plains from colorado
to kansas
a whirlwind gaunt and alone crosses
the landscape
i drive the truck south toward oklahoma
crossing the same path two moon
and roman nose
once wandered
i am on the edge
barely in america
somewhere between rage and freedom
—from “leaving bents fort
for floyd bringing good”
These poems were written during Lance Henson’s extensive travels through the United States and Europe from 1986 to 1994.
Stark, militant, and searching, bearing a fierce witness, they constitute his mature view of the American experience.
Since Henson left the United States shortly after this volume’s publication in 1997, they also represent his last view of America for the foreseeable future.
Lance Henson was raised as a Southern Cheyenne near Calumet, Oklahoma.
A member of the Cheyenne Dog Soldier Warrior Society and Black Belt in karate, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps; later he became a Native American activist.
He has published over a dozen volumes of poetry, including Naming the Dark (1976) and Selected Poems: 1970-83 (1985), and his work has been widely anthologized.