Dave Kiffer - Alaskan Poet, Historian, Humorist

  SOUTHEAST LOG 6-19-21 Sour Note SITKA - The brand-new director of the Sitka Arts Festival is now the former director of the festival. Kel Dylla resigned last week after barely three months on the job. Dylla said that she and her family plan to stay in Sitka. THE DAILY SITKA SENTINEL Smith reelected KITIMAT -Crystal Smith has been reelected as the Chief Councillor of the Haisla Nation. Smith received 347 votes in the recent election, easily outpolling Paula Smith who received 158. THE KITIMAT NORTHERN SENTINEL Only attendees can graduate PETERSBURG - The school district has clarified the policy regarding participation in the high school senior graduation ceremony. Last year, the district allowed home school students to attend the ceremony but has now made it clear that was a one-time event because of the COVID situation. THE PETERSBURG PILOT Company throws party for town TENAKEE SPRINGS - Residents enjoyed free food...

  NIBLACK (Copyright 2010, by Dave Kiffer) Rainbows always fall to earth Just not into pots of gold No matter how carefully You scan the gullies For the lines of quartz That shimmer and float A rainbow streaking Across the granite faces You had the advantage Coming from a wet climate Knowing how to see through The relentless vegetation The others were used To the naked desert The veins exposed like Scars on the belly Such a solitary time The scratch of the pick The quartz, the clay Falling into the sack An empty coin bag Stamped San Francisco Where your father’s Dream went bust You pour the samples Into the hopper, brush And scrub away the mud Rubbing the finer grit Into the bottom pan Checking the quartz Again and again Squinting harder You find the color The stripes of the rainbow Shining back from the pan But not enough that you Don’t have to go back To the outcrop and strip Some more tomorrow And the tomorrow after Your wife will eventually Follow you, dragging my Grandmother ...

  KINGS   (copyright 2011, by Dave Kiffer)   They were much taller back then Now stoop shouldered, thin of hair They are ciphers inside the throng As if the energy of the crowd Could dissipate them any minute   I remember being struck dumb By their towering shoulders Their arms like great wings And I clung tightly to My father’s sweaty hand   Now I brush past them With a short glance As my own son adores Their successors rising To lead the cheering crowd

  PLOT 127-A   (Copyright 2021, by Dave Kiffer)   She always wanted A granite countertop. But it would have looked Horribly out of place In a homebuilt kitchen Of mismatched chairs and multiple generations of Lady Kenmores.   It was not to be. Just like there was never A new dress she didn't Have to sew herself. No granite countertop. Until today.

  SOLSTICE   The days are shorter now. Well, not really, They remain twenty-four hours More or less No matter how close Or far we are from the sun   But there is less daylight, Incrementally, like The way that love wanes, Even as the heat rises, The longer the summer Goes on  

  BEFORE (Copyright 2021, by Dave Kiffer)   What is to be made Of a face smiling back From a photograph With curling edges,   Of a world faded, but not oblivial, Familiar, but not Intimate, to you.   It is a young woman That you never knew With recognizable, Yet distant eyes.   And that kernel, That smile, would Eventually bury itself, Leaving only a husk,   A husk that you Must summon daily, Because it is all, That remains.

 SITNEWS COLUMN #434 Memories, of the way we.....I forget If I had one bit of advice for Graduates of 2021 (college, high school, obedience school), it would be to write everything down. Now that I have reached the point of no return into Doddlerhood, I find that I can't remember all those high school, college, and obedience school graduations very well. Actually, I do remember one of my first obedience school graduations. I was about five or so and I heard my father call my mother by her middle name, So I called her that name as well. I didn't know that he only called her that when he wanted to make really mad.  At the time, I was also not aware that even though it is made of paper that a rolled-up newspaper suddenly takes on the strength of nuclear pasta when it collides with my no-longer smirking face. What's that you say? What's "nuclear pasta?" Is it something you can only get at 5-star Italian Restaurants like the kind Billy Joel sings about? S...

  SOUTHEAST LOG 6-12-21 Borough offers prize money for vaccinations PETERSBURG - The borough is offering $10,000 in prizes this month to residents who get vaccinated for COVID 19. Sleeves Up Petersburg will be offering several $500 prizes as well as a $4,000 grand prize. THE PETERSBURG PILOT Pool closure angers user HAINES - Pool users are protesting a proposed three-month pool closure set for this summer. The borough wants to shut down the facility in order to save month. It would be the third straight year with lengthy closures for renovations in 2019 and COVID concerns in 2020. THE CHILKAT VALLEY NEWS Skultka wins Derby SITKA - Charles Skultka Sr. is the winner of the two-weekend king salmon derby with a 36.8 pound king. Patrick Davis finished second after leading the first weekend with a 35.8 pound king. THE DAILY SITKA SENTINEL Look out for Loki! PRINCE RUPERT - Residents are being asked to keep an "eagle eye...

  SOUTHEAST LOG 6-5-21 Time for fisticuffs? KITIMAT - A donnybrook may be brewing as the KItimat District Council is split over whether to allow a second semi-pro hockey team in the community. Four members supported the proposal from the Greater Metro Hockey League for a Kitimat team, while three voted no because Kitimat already has a team in the Central Interior League, the Ice Demons. No word on when the gloves will come off. THE KITIMAT NORTHERN SENTINEL Local grapplers top state WRANGELL - Ryan Rooney and Liana Carney are state champion wrestlers. Rooney won the 160-pound class and Carney won the 135 title. It was Carney's second state title.  THE WRANGELL SENTINEL ATM crash kills teen TERRACE - Officials are investigating the crash of an ATV that killed a teenager last week. RCMP says that officers saw three people riding an ATV without helmets and tried to stop the ATV but that the ATV eluded them. Later in the evening the ATV was involved in a crash that...

 S OUTHEAST LOG 5-29-21 Don't be so sure! JUNEAU - Police investigated a "suspicious" package found underneath the Capitol skybridge last, Turned out the package contained not a bomb but a book. Police said the book was not dangerous. THE JUNEAU EMPIRE Former coach honored SITKA - Retired Sitka High baseball coach Ed Conway was honored recently by MaxPreps national website as being the best baseball coach ever in Alaska. MaxPreps specifically cited Conway for leading Sitka to several state championships despite the fact that it sometimes faced school with four and five times the enrollment of Sitka High. THE DAILY SITKA SENTINEL Home price nears $600,000 WHITEHORSE - The average price of a single-family house has jumped 16 percent in the past year. Officials say that the average house sale prices is now $590,000. THE WHITEHORSE DAILY STAR Mural dedicated HYDABURG - Andrew "Staa" Morrison has painted a mural ...

  The Goose was everyone's favorite 'bird' Grumman amphibian defined SE air travel for 30 years There have been many types of airplanes that have flown in Southeast Alaska in the last century, but there is little question that the most fondly remembered is the Grumman   Goose . The   Goose   was an amphibian, a plane that could take off from a concrete runway and later land in the water or vise-versa. It could also land in the water and then use its wheels to go up onto the larger beaches. Unlike smaller floatplanes it had significant cargo space, could carry 10 passengers and - with its twin 450 horsepower Pratt and Whitney engines - travel between most of the larger Southeast communities in an hour or less. Unlike float planes which have pontoons, an amphibian is essentially a flying boat that lands on its hull in the water. That fact sometimes comes as a shock to passengers who are not expecting to see the water splas...