Last August I received an epic poem,THE BALLAD OF DANCES WITH WOLVES, from my former colleague, Mr.Poh Keng,Lim. In an accompanying note, he wrote:
This 30-verse poem written by my friend twenty years ago had won him the prize of a TRK-3D30W mini-compo in the contest, SUPERSHOWS 1991. It was jointly organised by The Star and Hitachi, for the sheer effort that my friend had put in in the writing of the poem dedicated to Dances With Wolves. 
At the footnote of the poem, Bro. Lim has specially dedicated it to the author of ‘Dances with the Wolves’, Michael Blake, for his moving novel in which “in the end, inspiration is everything”, to Kevin Costner who took a big gamble in producing such a magnificent picture and to John Barry who composed the superb film soundtrack which enhances the enjoyment of the movie.
I thought it would be a good idea if I could share this poem with other readers on my blog so that they too will have the chance to read and appreciate the beauty of this poem.
I translated my thought into a text message to my friend; to which he duly agreed and replied on 21 August,2011, emphasizing:
“Bro. Liew, I would be happy if you could send my poem to Kevin Costner to commemorate its 20th anniversary.Please try your best. Thank You.”Hopefully the publication of this poem on my blog would achieve its dual purpose as it is intended to .
Below is the text of the poem:
THE BALLAD OF DANCES WITH WOLVES
Lieutenant Dunbar, how well you did ride,
You were dubbed a hero from a likely suicide!
You rode to draw fire, and then turned the tide,
Which brought wondrous victory unto your own side.
Decorated was young Dunbar,our suicidal hero
Who rode upon a buckskin by the name of Cisco;
Saved he was his foot for putting up a great show!
His boon was thus granted, so to the frontier he’d go.
With Timmons the peasant to guide him along,
The foulest man was he, Dunbar couldn’t be wrong;
Abandoned was Fort Sedgewick, to him now belonged,
“This is my post!” said he with a voice clear and strong.
Alone at his post, he would clean up the place,
And gathered he the garbage and set them ablaze;
Soon up on the bluff, a wolf started to gaze,
Dunbar nemed him Two Socks in a couple of days.
O piteous Timmons was he butchered by the vicious Pawnee,
But Dunbar he knew not, the loneliest man now was he;
A horse-stealing Indian soon appeared on the scene,
But when our buck naked hero appeared, O how he did flee!
Prepared was our hero for a coming encounter,
Where there was one Indian, there’s bound to be another!
Soon the Indians again did try to steal Cisco from his master,
But the clever steed would outsmart his two-timed abductors.
Walking on eggs was he, far too long it did seem,
Decided so our hero to break off his dream;
And dressed up was he in grand self-esteem!
Off to see the Indians who camped along the same stream.
Away he did ride way across the prairie,
And ere long he found beneath the oak tree
A mourning Indian, O so bloody was she!
Who soon swooned away at our hero’s entry.
The squaw in his arms to the Indian camp he did take,
But the reception was hostile causing our hero’s heartbreak!
But on the morrow, a visitation the Indians would make,
And it marked the beginning of friendship for each other’s sake.
They were Sioux Indians, Dunbar soon came to know,
A more peaceful tribe than the others would show;
Their chief was called Ten Bears with wisdom of old,
And Kicking Bird’s the holy man, a man to behold.
There’s Wind In His Hair, the young Indian brave,
And Stands With A Fist, the squaw Dunbar saved;
And friendship was made with the coffee he gave,
Soon, the wary Indians began returning his wave.
Dunbar when invited, to the Indian camp he would go,
But communication was difficult, painful and slow;
Stands With A Fist was Christine many years long ago,
Pawnee massacred her family when she was fourteen years old.
No more was Dunbar alone now with his neighbours so near,
Then, the earth shook one night when the buffalo appeared;
To the Indian camp he headed upon Cisco he steered
To inform his dear neighbours that the buffalo were here.
To the hunting ground they made for, but alas, what a sight!
With dead buffalo lying all over and stripped off their hides;
Who could have done such a thing in the living daylights?
But only white hunters who had no regard for Sioux rights.
When the next day arrived, the buffalo hunt then began,
O what a great stampede, how the buffalo there ran;
It was truly a spectacle between animal and man!
Finding the magnificent beasts was a flash in the pan.
Though it was Dunbar’s first hunt, a fine beast he did deliver,
And Wind In His Hair then offered him his first steaming liver!
The sight of the liver at first made his whole being quiver,
But once he had tasted it, he was thankful to his giver.
A grand celebration was there which lasted all night,
All were filled with elation, it was a wonderful sight!
Each day’s a miracle, and harmony came into light,
Back at the fort, Dunbar danced all by himself in delight!
One day on the prairie followed Two Socks so tame,
Dunbar ordered him home but he was playing games;
Animal and man were frolicking upon nature’s domain,
That’s how Dances With Wolves became Loo Ten Nant’s Sioux name.
Communication was a frustration to Kicking Bird’s plan,
Only half truths were told concerning the white man;
Stands With A Fist was a bridge to make both understand,
How many white men were coming to their very own land!
The Sioux war party would soon go against the Pawnee,
Dances With Wolves took care of Kicking Birds’s family,
When they were away, then came their old enemy,
But with guns from the fort, they gained a one-sided victory.
No dark political objective in this Sioux battle was there,
Nor battle for territories, riches or freeing men anywhere,
But the protection of the home, wives and children’s welfare,
And preserving the foodstuffs before winter hit the air.
All of a sudden it would then dawn upon him,
For he never knew who he was until now it did seem;
Dances With Wolves thus discovered himself from within,
Among his Sioux friends they now shared the same dream.
Stands With A Fist’s mourning was over, now she was free,
So Dances With Wolves could now join her in matrimony;
Spent they their honeymoon inside a tepee,
Trying their level best to produce a baby.
Leaving for the winter camp, were the Sioux ready to go,
But the tell-tale journal at the fort was Dances With Wolves’s woe;
So rode he to Fort Sedgewick, empty it was no more so,
White men thinking him an Indian, their shots killed poor Cisco!
Dances With Wolves found himself then in neck-deep trouble,
Branded was he by the U.S. Army a traitor on the double;
Shackled and disgraced, his dignity took a sudden tumble,
They even killed poor Two Socks as his world further crumbled!
But rescue was not far off from Wind In His Hair,
His captors were soon routed, it became their nightmare;
Soon back at the camp, there was much to be shared,
He recounted his adventures to all present there.
With Dances With Wolves’s painful decision to leave,
It caused quite an uproar for they found it hard to believe;
If the U.S. Army should find him, they would all come to grief,
As their freedom days were numbered, it was beyond all relief!
Kicking Bird and Dances With Wolves just between them two,
Exchanged they presents before the final parting was due;
“ We have come far – you and me,” Kicking Bird would review,
And Dances With Wolves sadly replied, “ I would ne’er forget you!”
Wind In His Hair loved him truly like his very own brother,
Dances With Wolves loved him too like there was no other;
But man’s inhumanity to man only makes poor mortals suffer,
As sadness descended the couple left their Sioux friends forever!
Dunbar was prophetic when he wanted to see the frontier
Before it was gone forever and the irony is now clear,
And like all good times, it too would in the end disappear,
Along with buffalo and Indian rights in just a matter of years!
You were dubbed a hero from a likely suicide!
You rode to draw fire, and then turned the tide,
Which brought wondrous victory unto your own side.
Decorated was young Dunbar,our suicidal hero
Who rode upon a buckskin by the name of Cisco;
Saved he was his foot for putting up a great show!
His boon was thus granted, so to the frontier he’d go.
With Timmons the peasant to guide him along,
The foulest man was he, Dunbar couldn’t be wrong;
Abandoned was Fort Sedgewick, to him now belonged,
“This is my post!” said he with a voice clear and strong.
Alone at his post, he would clean up the place,
And gathered he the garbage and set them ablaze;
Soon up on the bluff, a wolf started to gaze,
Dunbar nemed him Two Socks in a couple of days.
O piteous Timmons was he butchered by the vicious Pawnee,
But Dunbar he knew not, the loneliest man now was he;
A horse-stealing Indian soon appeared on the scene,
But when our buck naked hero appeared, O how he did flee!
Prepared was our hero for a coming encounter,
Where there was one Indian, there’s bound to be another!
Soon the Indians again did try to steal Cisco from his master,
But the clever steed would outsmart his two-timed abductors.
Walking on eggs was he, far too long it did seem,
Decided so our hero to break off his dream;
And dressed up was he in grand self-esteem!
Off to see the Indians who camped along the same stream.
Away he did ride way across the prairie,
And ere long he found beneath the oak tree
A mourning Indian, O so bloody was she!
Who soon swooned away at our hero’s entry.
The squaw in his arms to the Indian camp he did take,
But the reception was hostile causing our hero’s heartbreak!
But on the morrow, a visitation the Indians would make,
And it marked the beginning of friendship for each other’s sake.
They were Sioux Indians, Dunbar soon came to know,
A more peaceful tribe than the others would show;
Their chief was called Ten Bears with wisdom of old,
And Kicking Bird’s the holy man, a man to behold.
There’s Wind In His Hair, the young Indian brave,
And Stands With A Fist, the squaw Dunbar saved;
And friendship was made with the coffee he gave,
Soon, the wary Indians began returning his wave.
Dunbar when invited, to the Indian camp he would go,
But communication was difficult, painful and slow;
Stands With A Fist was Christine many years long ago,
Pawnee massacred her family when she was fourteen years old.
No more was Dunbar alone now with his neighbours so near,
Then, the earth shook one night when the buffalo appeared;
To the Indian camp he headed upon Cisco he steered
To inform his dear neighbours that the buffalo were here.
To the hunting ground they made for, but alas, what a sight!
With dead buffalo lying all over and stripped off their hides;
Who could have done such a thing in the living daylights?
But only white hunters who had no regard for Sioux rights.
When the next day arrived, the buffalo hunt then began,
O what a great stampede, how the buffalo there ran;
It was truly a spectacle between animal and man!
Finding the magnificent beasts was a flash in the pan.
Though it was Dunbar’s first hunt, a fine beast he did deliver,
And Wind In His Hair then offered him his first steaming liver!
The sight of the liver at first made his whole being quiver,
But once he had tasted it, he was thankful to his giver.
A grand celebration was there which lasted all night,
All were filled with elation, it was a wonderful sight!
Each day’s a miracle, and harmony came into light,
Back at the fort, Dunbar danced all by himself in delight!
One day on the prairie followed Two Socks so tame,
Dunbar ordered him home but he was playing games;
Animal and man were frolicking upon nature’s domain,
That’s how Dances With Wolves became Loo Ten Nant’s Sioux name.
Communication was a frustration to Kicking Bird’s plan,
Only half truths were told concerning the white man;
Stands With A Fist was a bridge to make both understand,
How many white men were coming to their very own land!
The Sioux war party would soon go against the Pawnee,
Dances With Wolves took care of Kicking Birds’s family,
When they were away, then came their old enemy,
But with guns from the fort, they gained a one-sided victory.
No dark political objective in this Sioux battle was there,
Nor battle for territories, riches or freeing men anywhere,
But the protection of the home, wives and children’s welfare,
And preserving the foodstuffs before winter hit the air.
All of a sudden it would then dawn upon him,
For he never knew who he was until now it did seem;
Dances With Wolves thus discovered himself from within,
Among his Sioux friends they now shared the same dream.
Stands With A Fist’s mourning was over, now she was free,
So Dances With Wolves could now join her in matrimony;
Spent they their honeymoon inside a tepee,
Trying their level best to produce a baby.
Leaving for the winter camp, were the Sioux ready to go,
But the tell-tale journal at the fort was Dances With Wolves’s woe;
So rode he to Fort Sedgewick, empty it was no more so,
White men thinking him an Indian, their shots killed poor Cisco!
Dances With Wolves found himself then in neck-deep trouble,
Branded was he by the U.S. Army a traitor on the double;
Shackled and disgraced, his dignity took a sudden tumble,
They even killed poor Two Socks as his world further crumbled!
But rescue was not far off from Wind In His Hair,
His captors were soon routed, it became their nightmare;
Soon back at the camp, there was much to be shared,
He recounted his adventures to all present there.
With Dances With Wolves’s painful decision to leave,
It caused quite an uproar for they found it hard to believe;
If the U.S. Army should find him, they would all come to grief,
As their freedom days were numbered, it was beyond all relief!
Kicking Bird and Dances With Wolves just between them two,
Exchanged they presents before the final parting was due;
“ We have come far – you and me,” Kicking Bird would review,
And Dances With Wolves sadly replied, “ I would ne’er forget you!”
Wind In His Hair loved him truly like his very own brother,
Dances With Wolves loved him too like there was no other;
But man’s inhumanity to man only makes poor mortals suffer,
As sadness descended the couple left their Sioux friends forever!
Dunbar was prophetic when he wanted to see the frontier
Before it was gone forever and the irony is now clear,
And like all good times, it too would in the end disappear,
Along with buffalo and Indian rights in just a matter of years!
1 comment:
Response from a friend through email:
Hi Mr Liew,
Saw the film 'Dances with wolves", so was able to relate to the poem. Your friend indeed deserved the prize. Thank You very much
for sharing this beautiful poem with us.
Gong Xi Fa Cai!
Regards,
Mrs Yeoh
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