Henry Real Bird, Poet Laureate of Montana

One of the categories on my new website is called "Web Sightings"; when I find a really cool site I want to tell you about, I'll write about it here.  I learned about Henry Real Bird, the poet laureate of Montana, from NPR's "All Things Considered."

To promote the reading of poetry by Montana's schoolchildren, Henry Real Bird, a cowboy and member of Crow nation, went on a 500-mile horseback trip to distribute books.  He also reads his poetry -- and you can hear a podcast by clicking here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128877656&ft=1&f=1008

In the NPR interview, the former rodeo cowboy told about what he's learning along the way: "I see where life has been, just unbelievable — ancient beaches and stone. I can see abandoned homes where life was flourishing back at the turn of the century. And I can see where the buffalo wallowing that I can ride through." Even his interviews sound like poetry!

You can also see a video of Henry Real Bird, along with other "New Land" poets (including Sparrow, Rita Dove, Tracie Morris, Naomi Shihab Nye and Lois-Ann Yamanaka at http://www.worldofpoetry.org/usop/land1.htm)

It's fun to travel on the world-wide web, meeting poets like these.