GOLDEN FEET in 4 parts

Part I

Monarch The Grizzly 

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Stay tuned, there’s a new part of GOLDEN FEET in the making, about the bear grotto in SF's Golden Gate Park where Monarch lived after he was captured by a posse funded by William Randolph Hearst. This is a photo of him below.

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GOLDEN FEET part 2

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Return from the Bear Hunt, 1882

William Hahn (1829-87)

carcass of female California grizzly

GOLDEN FEET part 2

Her cubs are hiding there on the other side of that ridge. They heard her fight to the end, killed on that day when eleven horses and a dead buck came with nine men, five dogs, two boys, whips, ropes, and revolving rifles surrounded her. Golden Feet your cubs could live on without you. 

Extirpated fear for what, mother of honey? What did you do to her? The pain became too much for this Oakland girl, Filipina artist took her own life on Sunday. Seventeen and couldn't find a way out of the grief and despair. She'd taught us how to draw a cat, how to use color and how to put on a brave face for a while. Her shadow was not there then

Last Sunday nobody could save her. Honey paw, pride of the woodlands, what did we do?!

R.I.P. Alex Foronda 6/22/14

California grizzly (Ursus arctos californicus) extinct subspecies since August 1922 or 1924 or so they say...

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GOLDEN FEET part 3
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                 Bear effigy, ca. 1870, Haida 

          GOLDEN FEET part 3

   Lured to earth metamorphic-

 ly. Sticky and sweet, raw some-

  times sun sometimes shaman,

  strong grounding vibrant force.

  Golden Feet, you've got incre-

   dible teeth. Can I touch your

     body, groom out pests and 

     ugly things for another life-

   time? Will you return to the

     sea and docks, take after 

      cousins? Wood and bone

    inspired by your courage

    alone in light and shadows

   to observe quietly, resting.

    Inlaid and painted to last 

   another century and a half.

   I need your wild medicine,

   Golden Feet in my dreams

   with huckleberry, salmon

    from the ancient stories.

   Can I know your secrets,

  would you willingly, friend

 of fen and forest, honey paw,

  effigy shining in front of me?

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GOLDEN FEET part 4

E51 intention of bone 

E51 intention of bone 

Wide cheek bones    Breathe exhale
predatory teeth      empty the belly

brain cavity lower     find calm from

no sagittal crest        today's afflictions

significantly round     do sun salutations
nose hole larger      float in water

Could I request my body   Come near
burn in a seated position        nearer
sent to sea on a homemade    expansion
raft please not frozen then in    transfigure
glass as an example flesh     destruction
beetles work nor 3rd grade    discover
science experiment inflating      unknown
pieces of lung maybe it was      realms of
not a curable disease they      imagination
visit sinister or shy place    comprehend
the horrors of mass      skulls found
extinction human violence   E51 is what
flesh is gone eaten by    one man not
several animals   on the beach

ignore and deny    Frantz Fanon

not of core belief       dissonance

do not listen    bone intention
bone chewed    licked bone
action     of heady   

ash    feeds tomorrow

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Part 1: Monarch the grizzly who was the model for the California flag.
The photo of the grizzly is Monarch.

Part 2 photo of painting from natural sciences gallery of Oakland Museum of California http://www.museumca.org

Part 3 photo of skull from California Academy of Sciences


Part 4 photo of bear effigy from de Young Museum