After high winds yesterday, sunshine and mild temperatures have me enjoying the lull between Christmas and New Year. I’m finishing projects and thinking about 2025 and this year’s gifts. I’m grateful to have been a fellow at Indigenous Nations Poets for which Osage Elise Paschen is a board member. Paschen’s next poetry book, Blood Wolf Moon, will be released by Red Hen Press on April 8th, and it’s available for preorder now. The cover by Addie Roanhorse is striking; a design incorporating a bison and fragment of an allotment map, source of so much trouble for so many Osages floats on a maroon background.
Blood Wolf Moon follows Tallchief/𐒼𐒰𐒹𐒻𐒼𐒰 𐓆𐓊𐒷, Paschen’s special collection released last year by Magic City Books of Tulsa to coincide with celebrations of the Maria Tallchief Quarter. Blood Wolf Moon reflects a poet at the height of her powers, yet it remains accessible to a wide audience and will especially be valued by Osages. Readers will find reflections of a child in Fairfax, grounded by a grandmother’s home, as well the
singular experiences of a child whose mother is a world-famous prima ballerina. It feels brave and particularly tender to consider the impact of such a life on a young child, as in “Ode to the Lost Mother.” One of the most powerful and poignant sequences revisits a childhood dwelling at “123 West 69th Street,” ranging over the lasting effects of unresolved trauma. Paschen uses Osage words, telling Water Stone Review she keeps LaFlesche and Quintero’s dictionaries close as she works. The poets among us will admire and study the beauty and mastery evident in the collection.
Sadly, this is a time when many of our Osage people are mourning. Grayhorse is grieving the loss of esteemed cook and longtime Osage language teacher Donna Barrone. In a small community like Fairfax or Grayhorse, everyone grows up together, knowing each other’s families. “She lived and loved big,” Tammy Mason Lux said, characterizing what many experienced.
I remember walking into the kitchen of the old community building at Grayhorse many years ago. I stood in the dull light looking for cool water. 𐓂𐒹𐓂 Donna was resting after the noon meal and got it for me, but I felt bad for disturbing her.
Donna Barrone appeared in The Heart Stays, an independent film directed by Osage citizen Diane Fraher, released earlier this year, as well as Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. In each she was a cook, anchoring the scenes with a fundamental aspect of Osage life, our shared meals and community dinners. Although I enjoyed seeing her at the Osage Nation Language Building in Grayhorse over the years, it was at the Dhegiha Language Conference that I had more time with her. Sitting with Tammy Mason Lux, the three of us were like girls in class. Our wakonze answered our language questions, and we made a quick trip to an art reception that included a stop at an old-fashioned candy shop in Joplin. Pyramids of chocolate truffles of all configurations vied with fudge beside old-fashioned candy in glass jars. Wakonze Donna began shopping for gifts with various friends in mind, and finally we drove home, the three of us laughing. The surprise and sorrow that followed the announcement of her passing suggest the deep impression she made. Donna Barrone’s life shows us what’s important, and I’m grateful for the time I spent with her. I hope we each share such kindness and joy in our own lives, even as we pursue our goals through the New Year.
Note: Paschen will launch Blood Wolf Moon at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago on April 10th, followed by events at Poets House in New York City and the Grolier Poetry Book Shop in Cambridge. The Philbrook Museum in Tulsa will celebrate Blood Wolf Moon on April 15th and the Osage Nation Museum on April 17th.
CORRECTION: The dates for two events were wrong in an earlier version of this article. The Philbrook Museum in Tulsa will celebrate Blood Wolf Moon on April 15th and the Osage Nation Museum on April 17th. The Osage News regrets the error.