Böcker av Jack Rickard

A DIFFERENT KIND OF DAY; POETRY AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF Jack RICKARDTravel with Jack to a magical world where you meet a boy who flies in a spoon over the moon, a cat and mouse baseball team, kids who live in a shoe, a kangaroo with his face painted blue, a boy who rides a spotted cow to school, an alligator that plays saxophone, a bear that rides around on a ball, spooks and goblins in a witches brew with illustrations that are powerful, poignant, sensual and brooding.Laying down sentences like a trail of cookie crumbs, Rickard writes with the insight and compassion of a teacher who spent most of his life in classrooms full of inquisitive youth. The poems express an awareness of young people''s lives, feelings, and problems. On the surface they are simple poems about love, friendship, being afraid of the dark, having to make choices, being a cat, the world of a fish, and making yourself well.The poems present everyday life made comical for readers of all ages: traffic jams, being a new kid on the block, standing in line, being a wallflower, having an invisible friend, struggling with the wind, and preserving the earth. Each has a deeper meaning that masks a morality play of many levels and brings the reader back again and again.Jack Rickard is a singer, a philosopher, a master of make believe, a guide to a spiritual connection that reveals a humorous world beyond the rabbit hole. It is a place where readers encounter joy and happiness that threatens to be lost among the sordid events of our time.A DIFFERENT KIND OF DAY is a eulogy to laughter, an acclamation of joy, a celebration of the sublime, a profound ode to the earth and those things that make a difference in life.

The setting is the high rugged plateau of North Dakota where each summer Sundancers gather to reenact a ceremony that was given to the people of the northern plains so far in the past there are no written records. Dancing With The Sun is a collection of prose adapted from the author's journals compiled over a twelve year period at the Sun Dance on the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara Reservation, Fort Berthold, North Dakota. It is a deeply personal and spiritual book filled with the rich imagery of the sacred Dance, the Sweat Lodge, the Vision Quest, the power of dreams, the attachments of friends, hope, courage, and characters who thrill, dismay and sometimes shock. Most of all it is a book about the land, a saga of place in the American landscape with a lovely and troubled history that serves as a reminder that one's past and place of birth leave an indelible stain on each of us.The book is organized into 5 sections, each section covering a particular aspect of the Sun Dance ceremony. Hanblechia (crying for a vision), Inipi (sweat lodge), Mitakuye Oyasin (all my relations), Wiwanyang Wacipi (they dance gazing at the sun), and Toksa Akhe (I'll see you again someday). . It is North Dakota, a kingdom of grass, rocky outcroppings, willow groves, and worn out boots turned upside down on fence posts. It is where the razor-breath of winter is never far away and has no love for summer. Cows are dark spots on the horizon, and the wind blows as much as in Kansas. There in the red - skirted majesty of the Sun Dance the people tell their tales.Mike Joseph relates how he smoked his pipe with the Dali Lima. Foolish Boy describes the Native American Church ceremony. Leland Dubois the Smoke Jumper speaks about forest fires. Richard from Canada laughs about the white guy when hunting who shot his own horse. Allen White explains how he played a savage in a movie. Lloyd Elm tells about the haunted masks of the Long House. Paul Goodiron enlightens with his stories of Swift Boats in Vietnam. Adam of the Missing Children describes riding a bike across America.The stories are haunting, powerful, poignant, and sensual, brooding tales of the modern West. Laying down sentences like trail dust, Rickard writes with insight and compassion about the fragility of Native lives, the tragedy of disappearing towns, howling-dog winters, and depressing drought. Like a pebble tossed into a pond, Rickard journeys outward from the center of his universe into wider and wider peripheries, constantly searching, a restless nomad who transcends his own culture without abandoning it, leaves but never forgets his beginnings.Dancing With the Sun is a grand and glorious Western landscape written by an artist, historian, philosopher and poet who experienced most of the 20th century. A compelling and compassionate odyssey where all come together in the sun-bleached bones of the dance.