#Indigenous poetry

[uwmspeccoll]

Voices of the Land

What better way to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day than to highlight this landmark anthology that commemorates the Indigenous Peoples of North America? When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry, edited by Joy Harjo with Leanne Howe, Jennifer Elise Foerster, is a curated collection that features the poetry of 160 poets each showcasing a distinct voice from nearly 100 Indigenous Nations. This is the first edition from 2020, published by W. W. Norton & Company in New York.

The anthology is the first to provide a historically comprehensive collection of Native poetry. The literary traditions of Native Americans, the original poets of this country, date back centuries. The book opens with a blessing from Pulitzer Prize winner American Kiowa/Cherokee N. Scott Momaday (1934-2024) and contains introductions from contributing editors for five geographically organized sections. Each section begins with a poem from traditional oral literature and closes with emerging poets, creating a rich and diverse tapestry of Indigenous voices.

Joy Harjo, a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, is a prominent figure in the literary world. She is known for her work as a poet, musician, playwright, and author. In addition to her contributions to literature, Harjo is also a celebrated performer and has released several albums combining poetry and music. In 2019, she made history by becoming the first Native American United States Poet Laureate and only the second to serve three terms. Throughout her career, Harjo has been a vocal advocate for Indigenous rights and has used her art to shed light on the experiences of Native peoples.

The following is an excerpt from Harjo’s introduction to this work:

“The anthology then is a way to pass on the poetry that has emerged from rich traditions of the very diverse cultures of indigenous peoples from these indigenous lands, to share it. Most readers will have no idea that there is or was a single Native poet, let alone the number included in this anthology. Our existence as sentient human beings in the establishment of this country was denied. Our presence is still an afterthought, and fraught with tension, because our continued presence means that the mythic storyline of the founding of this country is inaccurate. The United States is a very young country and has been in existence for only a few hundred years. Indigenous peoples have been here for thousands upon thousands of years and we are still here.”

View other Indigenous Peoples' Day posts.

View other posts from our Native American Literature Collection.

-Melissa (Stockbridge-Munsee), Special Collections Graduate Intern

We acknowledge that in Milwaukee we live and work on traditional Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, and Menominee homelands along the southwest shores of Michigami, part of North America’s largest system of freshwater lakes, where the Milwaukee, Menominee, and Kinnickinnic rivers meet and the people of Wisconsin’s sovereign Anishinaabe, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Oneida, and Mohican nations remain present.

[gennsoup]

Sun makes the day new. Tiny green plants emerge from earth. Birds are singing the sky into place. There is nowhere else I want to be but here. I lean into the rhythm of your heart to see where it will take us.

Joy Harjo, For Keeps

[niibaataa]

Some Indigenous Poets to Read

Disclaimer: Some of these poems deal with pregnancy, colonialism, substance abuse, murder, death, and historical wrongs. Exercise caution.

Tacey M. Atsitty [Diné] : Anasazi, Lady Birds' Evening Meetings, Things to Do With a Monster.

Billy-Ray Belcourt [Cree] : NDN Homopoetics, If Our Bodies Could Rust, We Would Be Falling Apart, Love is a Moontime Teaching.

CooXooEii Black [Arapaho] : On Mindfulness, Some Notes on Vision, With Scraps We Made Sacred Food.

Trevino L. Brings Plenty [Lakota] : Unpack Poetic, Will, Massacre Song Foundation.

Julian Talamantez Brolaski [Apache] : Nobaude, murder on the gowanus, What To Say Upon Being Asked To Be Friends.

Gladys Cardiff [Cherokee] : Combing, Prayer to Fix The Affections, To Frighten a Storm.

Freddy Chicangana [Yanacuna] : Of Rivers, Footprints, We Still Have Life on This Earth.

Laura Da' [Shawnee] : Bead Workers, The Meadow Views: Sword and Symbolic History, A Mighty Pulverizing Machine.

Natalie Diaz [Mojave] : It Was The Animals, My Brother My Wound, The Facts of Art.

Heid E. Erdrich [Anishinaabe] : De'an, Elemental Conception, Ghost Prisoner.

Jennifer Elise Foerster [Mvskoke] : From "Coosa", Leaving Tulsa, The Other Side.

Eric Gansworth [Onondaga] : Bee, Eel, A Half-Life of Cardio-Pulmonary Function.

Joy Harjo [Muscogee] : An American Sunrise, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings, A Map to The Next World.

Gordon Henry Jr. [Anishinaabe] : How Soon, On the Verve of Verbs, It Was Snowing on The Monuments.

Sy Hoahwah [Comanche/Arapaho] : Colors of The Comanche Nation Flag, Definitive Bright Morning, Typhoni.

LeAnne Howe [Choctaw] : A Duck's Tune, 1918, Iva Describes Her Deathbed.

Hugo Jamioy [Kamentsá] : PUNCTUAL, If You Don't Eat Anything, The Story of My People.

Layli Long Soldier [Lakota] : 38, WHEREAS, Obligations 2.

Janet McAdams [Muscogee] : Flood, The Hands of The Taino, Hunters, Gatherers.

Brandy Nālani McDougall [Kānaka Maoli] : He Mele Aloha no ka Niu, On Finding my Father's First Essay, The Island on Which I Love You.

dg nanouk okpik [Inupiaq-Inuit] : Cell Block on Chena River, Found, If Oil Is Drilled In Bristol Bay.

Simon J. Ortiz [Acoma Pueblo] : Becoming Human, Blind Curse, Busted Boy.

Sara Marie Ortiz [Acoma Pueblo] : Iyáani (Spirit, Breath, Life), Language (part of a compilation), Rush.

Alan Pelaez Lopez [Zapotec] : the afterlife of illegality, A Daily Prayer, Zapotec Crossers.

Tommy Pico [Kumeyaay] : From "Feed", from Junk, You Can't be an NDN Person in Today's World.

Craig Santos Perez [Chamorro] : (First Trimester), from Lisiensan Ga'lago, from "understory".

Cedar Sigo [Suquamish] : Cold Valley, Expensive Magic, Secrets of The Inner Mind.

M. L. Smoker [Assiniboine/Sioux] : Crosscurrent, Heart Butte, Montana, Another Attempt at Rescue.

Laura Tohe [Diné] : For Kathryn, Female Rain, Returning.

Gwen Nell Westerman [Cherokee/Dakota] : Dakota Homecoming, Covalent Bonds, Undivided Interest.

Karenne Wood [Monacan] : Apologies, Abracadabra, an Abecedarian, Chief Totopotamoi, 1654.

Lightning Round! Writers with poetry available on their sites:

Shonda Buchanan [Coharie, Cherokee, Choctaw].

Leonel Lienlaf [Mapuche].

Asani Charles [Choctaw/Chickasaw].

[ronycore]

EXCERPTS OF FROM TURTLE ISLAND TO GAZA (2019)

BY DAVID GROULX

READ FULL COPY HERE

[ometochtli2rabbit]

"How To Be A Good Savage and Other Poems" by Mikaes Sanchez, translated from Zoque and Spanish by Wendy Call and Shook. It includes three translations of each poem. Here's jus a taste:

WE ARE MOKAYAS

They call us Indians

for defending Nasakopajk'

but what child would help the executioner

rather than his mother?

We are Mokayas,

sowers of maize.

We aren't savages,

we aren't uncivilized.

We understand the language of rivers,

and hills.

We are the wound that will not heal,

we are the answer to your emptiness.

Come, white brother,

we will teach you a song you must

remember.

Come, white sister,

we will give you the secret of the sublime.

[big-gay-demons]

From 'This Wound Is A World' by Billy-Ray Belcourt.

[takataapui]

A poem about how time is a circle, echoing down through the generations. And also colonisation and psychosis, I suppose.

You, my tūpuna A hundred years after the empire came. Forced into a school, Forced to speak the Queen's English. You didn't know how you didn't kōrero their reo so you stayed quiet to avoid punishment. Yet punish you they did for disobedience for not listening for silence. Me, your moko, Two hundred fifty years After the empire came. Forced into a school, Forced to be a good student. I had a split from reality. Stayed quiet to avoid killing everyone as the delusion said speaking would do Yet they still punished me for disobedience for not listening for silence. A hundred fifty years between us Yet I feel the echo of you in me A hundred fifty years between us Yet the colonisation lives on A hundred fifty years between us Yet we are a pool of water reflecting each other They see our silence as breaking their rules, I see it as survival.

[mudaship39]

Info about me and my WIPS art and projects as a as a disabled and queer/trans native of color writer artist and creator

Native intro for social media.

Hello.

My Indigenous Pasifika preferred name is No’eau Aitonui Hoata/Heiani Mareva Hoata

If you are Indigenous or Indigenous Pasifika please refer to me by that name

My Vietnamese Kinh name is Ngoc Hien/Xuan Dinh Nguyen

If you are a non native person of color please refer to me by that name

My English/French name is Christian/Jeanne Nguyen

If you are a non native white person you can only refer to me by this name.

Im a Southeast Asian Vietnamese or Kinh Indigenous, European French, East Asian Chinese Hoa, & Polynesian Tahitian Indigenous Pasifika. I’m an Asian Native Pasifika.

I’m a disabled native of color. I’m autistic, neurodivergent, chronically ill spoonie disabled, & mentally ill disabled.

Im a disabled gamer/streamer. My Playstation tag is warpdriveplanet39. My Xbox tag is Mudaship39. Twitch is mudaship39. I play and stream PS3, PS4, & PS5 games. I play and stream Xbox 360, Xbox One games. I plan to play Xbox Series X games in the future.

I’m a QTIPOC or queer and trans Indigenous person of color. Nonbinary bigender or genderfluid pansexual or omnisexual. Polyam or polyamorous. Maohi/raerae in the middle indigenous third gender. Any and all pronouns. Including neopronouns and indigenous third gender pronons. He/him. She/her. They/them. Xer/xers. Native third gender neutral oña.

Im a writer, creator, & artist. Im an author, comic book writer, screenwriter, spoken word poet, & songwriter.

I’m a Indigenous language keeper, culture keeper, & storykeeper.

I write about racial, sex, cultural identity, sexual orientation, & gender identity in music and poetry.

I write about Black, poc, Indigenous, disabled, and or lgbt characters in disabled, bipoc, and qtipoc futurism.

Im the writer and creator of the precontact and post land back Bipoc and qtipoc futurism project. It’s a hybrid science fiction cyberpunk and magical high fantasy comic books and graphic novels series Chronicles of War.

Basic info is the pinned post of my tumblr. More information is on a google doc on my google drive.

Im the performing artist spoken word poet of the spoken word poetry book Heart of Fire Dragon, Soul of Flame Pheonix, & Sea Fairy Ocean Blood that is about being a disabled native, an Asian Native, a displaced disconnected diaspora, & QTIPOC.

The cut and censored version of it is linked in the pinned tweet on my twitter mudaship39. Uncut and uncensored version is on a google doc on my google drive.

If anyone wants to pay me for the poetry book and or the futurism project as a disabled writer, artist, and creator. Be sure to dm or pm me. There is a specific way to do so as a disabled writer artist and creator.

Be sure to check out my carrd in my bio. It has info on how to contact me for my projects. Info on how to pay me for my art. Info on my other social media accounts if mutuals want to follow me on other social media.

Do you want to read a spoken word poetry anthology book I wrote as an Asian native Pasifika artist who’s a songwriter and spoken word poet? Its called Heart of Fire Dragon Soul of Flame Phoenix and Sea Fairy Ocean Blood. It’s about being a disabled native (autistic, neurodivergent, chronically ill, & mentally ill disabled), a displaced disconnected state side diaspora, being an Asian Native (as a Vietnamese Kinh, French, Chinese Hoa, & Polynesian Tahitian Indigenous Pasifika person of color), & about being a QTIPOC (queer and trans third gender Indigenous person of color). I have been working on it for a long time as a storykeeper, language keeper, and culture keeper. It includes a personal foreword and personal afterword to Indigenous people specifically Polynesian, Micronesian, and Melanesian audiences. The cut and censored version of it is linked in my pinned tweet of my Twitter mudaship39 if you are interested in reading something like this. The uncut and uncensored version of it is on a google doc on my google drive. Need email for google doc invite link. Let me know which version you prefer to read if you're interested in reading something like this. Be sure to like and reblog my pinned post to boost my art to other native of color mutuals.

For the cut and censored version. Go to the pinned tweet. Like and retweet the pined tweet. This is so it gets out to your followers. Use any Indigenous and poc hashtags if you know any. This is so it gets out to others in the poc community and Indigenous community especially those indigenous to turtle island or Indigenous to Pasifika Oceania or Moana. Its also so I can find poc or Indigenous producers and publishers to actually make it into a spoken word poetry book. For the uncut and uncensored version post comments into the google doc itself and leave a review at the end. Let me know if you know anyone else interested in reading something like this. Let me know if know any poc and Indigenous artists especially indigenous to turtle island or Indigenous to Pasifika Oceania or Moana who are willing to draw art for this poetry book.

Im also a writer and creator who writes bipoc, disabled, and qtipoc futurism. I write magical high fantasy and science fiction books, comics, and graphic novels. My bipoc, disabled, and qtipoc futurism project called Chronicles of War. It is a cyberpunk science fiction and magical high fantasy hybrid comic book or graphic novel series. It is precontact and post land back. That is about several disabled, bipoc (or Black Indigenous and or person of color) characters, and qtipoc (or queer and trans indigenous people of color) main characters. One is a Asian pasifika/Afro latine native demigod metahuman and alien hybrid superhuman superhero in a cyberpunk world in the near and far future. The other is an Afro Asian native coded magical human with fae elvish, hobgoblin goblinoid, & giant kin ancestry who’s a spellcaster, swordfighter, and gunslinger adventurer in a magical high fantasy world. Both of them are qtipoc disabled and bipoc. There are other bipoc and qtipoc main characters in other worlds pre contact and post land back. Such as a Sami Indigenous and European Scandinavian coded third gender god/goddess Jotunn Loki. Such as a third gender Afro Indigenous Chickasaw Native Freedman were lion and were leopard hybrid character and her friend a Afro Latine South American Native were jaguar and were cheetah werecat hybrid character. Both of them living in a town of Afro Indigenous Freedman and hybrid humanoid communities. Such as a Central and South American summoners of kaiju or titans based on Nahuatl Quechua and Maya Indigenous mythology. Such as a female Asian and Asian Native half human half firebird and lighting bird monk fighter. Such as a Indigenous Pasifika sea pirate. It has Black, Native, poc, queer, trans, & disabled representation. It has Indigenous and indigenous pasifika representation too actually. If that’s something you are into. Need email for google doc invite link also if you are also into this.

If anyone wants to pay me for the poetry book and or the futurism project as a disabled writer artist and creator. Be sure to dm or pm me. There is a specific way to do so as a disabled writer artist and creator.

Cover art of the Spoken Word Poetry Book: Heart of Fire Dragon Soul of Flame Phoenix and Sea Fairy Ocean Blood:

Upcoming project once i find cast crew and a studio and network to green light it: Modern take movie about Medusa and her blind lesbian love interest. With more diverse characters since modern take with disabled, queer trans, and bipoc representation like my other wips and projects.

Polynesian Micronesian and Melanesian sports anime or cartoon. Each season being about different Pasifika sport. Volleyball football ruby rowing or canoeing sailing. Each season with different main characters. Characters from past seasons returning in cameos. Gay volleyball with a vahine femme main character about a pasifika girl in varsity hs volleyball. Hawaiian or Tahitian and her partner is Tongan or Samoan.

[laikacore]

i finally found the thing i've been looking for

searching for, for years

i finally found it on an island out east

and there it tasted just as i'd imagined it would

rich chocolate, delicious and sweet

where i couldn't smell the difference in the air

but i could feel it on my skin

where i found myself in that rich red dirt

where it fades to soft amber sand

where it fades to an endless horizon of steely blue

and when i found it again here

at home, in the gray world

of tall glass buildings and honking cars

and the gasoline i can smell

it doesn't quite taste the same here, no

synthetic sugar, not quite right

not like it did on that island out east

with the rolling hills and the deep green trees

and the goats and the cows and the potato fields

ah, that's home, that's where i'm from

if not me then my family

and my family's family

l'nuk, on the mi'kma'ki

prince edward island/epekwitk by laika wallace

[manwalksintobar]

Having Left // Tommy Pico

Like my grandfather, I keep eagles. Who believes in spiritual horseshit? There is a common misconception about Indian people, namely everything, but especially sadness. One summer the pepper tree rotted, black and twisted licorice crawling up the ground of my grandmother’s garden–– a reminder my grandfather was not my grandfather by blood. Bikini Kill had an album called Reject All American, which was not as good as the CD Version of the First Two Records or Pussy Whipped, but yielded “R.I.P.” People die. Sometimes a song reminds us about pink peppers. I feel inexorably American, in Paris, Brooklyn, Berlin, the reservation, despite vodka and liberal arts. There is a common misconception about Indians, namely everything, but especially when pink pepper trees grow cagelike in the valley, eagle screeching skyward, and he in a graveyard and I’m not there.

[bones-ivy-breath]

Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination of Anglikan Seraphym Subjugation of a Wild Indian Rezervation by Natalie Diaz

[gennsoup]

Praise crazy. Praise sad. Praise the path on which we're led. Praise the roads on earth and water. Praise the eater and the eaten. Praise beginnings; praise the end. Praise the song and praise the singer. Praise the rain; it brings more rain. Praise the rain; it brings more rain.

Joy Harjo, Praise the Rain

[giiwedinongkwe]

I have a website!

[niibaataa]

Nishnaabe Nagamonan

Disclaimer: Some works deal with historical wrongs, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, colonialism, and residential/boarding schools. Exercise caution.

Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm is a member of Saugeen Ojibway First Nation. Akiwenzie-Damm has served as Poet Laureate for Owen Sound and North Grey. In 1993, she established Kegedonce Press, a publishing house devoted to Indigenous writers. She has also authored Without Reservation: Indigenous Erotica.

Works: (Re)Generation, My Heart is a Stray Bullet.

Marie Annharte Baker is a member of Little Saskatchewan First Nation. Annharte's work concentrates on women, urban, Indigenous, disability, and related topics. She critiques life from Western Canada. After graduating with an English degree in the 1970s, she became involved in Native activism and was one of the first people in North America to teach a class entirely on Native women.

Works: Indigena Awry, Miskwagoode, Exercises in Lip Pointing.

Lesley Belleau is a member of Garden River First Nation. She is noted for her 2017 collection Indianland. She has an MA in English literature from the University of Windsor and is working on a PhD in Indigenous Studies from Trent University.

Works: Indianland.

Kimberly M. Blaeser is an enrolled member of the White Earth Reservation. Blaeser served as Wisconsin's Poet Laureate from 2015-2016. She is a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Miluwakee. A contemporary of Vizenor, she is the first critic to publish a book-length study on his fiction. She has been writing poetry since 1993.

Works: Apprenticed to Justice, Trailing You, Absentee Indians and Other Poems.

Diane Burns was a member of the Lac Courte Oreilles band. Burns was Anishinaabe through her mother and Chemehuevi through her father. Burns attended the Institute of American Indian Arts and Barnard College (within Columbia University). She was also an accomplished visual artist. She is considered an important figure within the Native American contemporary arts movement.

Works: Riding the One-Eyed Ford (available online).

Aja Couchois Duncan is a Bay Area educator, writer, and coach. Duncan is of Ojibwe, French, and Scottish descent. Her debut collection won the California Book Award. She holds an MFA in creative writing from San Francisco State University.

Works: Restless Continent, Vestigal.

Heid E. Erdrich is a member of the Turtle Mountain band. Erdrich is a granddaughter of Patrick Gourneau, who fought against Indian termination during his time as tribal chairman from 1953-1959. Erdrich holds a PhD in Native American Literature and Writing. Erdrich used to teach, but has since stepped back from doing it full-time. She directs Wiigwaas Press, an Ojibwe language publisher.

Works: Cell Traffic, The Mother's Tongue, Curator of Ephemera at the New Museum for Archaic Media.

Louise Erdrich is a member of the Turtle Mountain band. Erdrich is a granddaughter of Patrick Gourneau, who fought against Indian termination during his time as tribal chairman from 1953-1959. She is widely acclaimed as one of the most significant writers of the Native American Renaissance. Owner of Birchbark Books, an independent bookstore that focuses on Native Literature.

Works: Jacklight, Original Fire, Baptism of Desire.

David Groulx was raised in Elliott Lake, Ontario. Groulx is Ojibwe and French Canadian. He received his BA in Literature from Lakehead University and later studied creative writing at the En'owkin Centre in British Columbia. He has also studied creative writing at the University of Victoria.

Works: From Turtle Island to Gaza, Rising With a Distant Dawn, Imagine Mercy.

Gordon Henry Jr is an enrolled member of the White Earth Reservation. Gordon Henry Jr holds a PhD in Literature from the University of North Dakota and is currently a professor of English at Michigan State University. He has authored several novels and poetry collections and is a celebrated writer in Michigan.

Works: Spirit Matters, The Failure of Certain Charms.

Jane Johnston Schoolcraft was Born in Sault Ste. Marie on Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Schoolcraft was given the name of Bamewawagezhikaquay ('Woman of the Sound that the stars make Rushing Through the Sky') in Ojibwe. Her mother was Ozhaguscodaywayquay, the daughter of the Ojibwe war chief Waubojeeg. Her father was fur-trader John Johnston. Johnston is regarded as the first major Native American female writer. She wrote letters and poems in both English and Ojibwe.

Writeup containing works.

Denise Lajimodiere is a citizen of the Turtle Mountain band. Lajimodiere is considered an expert on Native American boarding schools following her work Stringing Rosaries, published in 2019. She is a poet, professor, scholar, and the current Poet Laureate of North Dakota.

Works: His Feathers Were Chains, Thunderbird: Poems, Dragonfly Dance.

Linda Legarde Grover is a member of the Bois Forte Band. She is a columnist for the Duluth Tribune and Professor Emeritus of American Indian Studies at University of Minnesota (Duluth). She has written poetry, short stories, and essays.

Works: The Sky Watched, Onigamiising.

Sara Littlecrow-Russel is of Ojibwe and Han-Naxi Métis descent. Russell is a lawyer and professional mediator as well as a poet. She has worked at the Center for Education and Policy Advocacy at the University of Massachusetts and for Community Partnerships for Social Change at Hampshire College.

Works: The Secret Powers of Naming.

Jim Northrup was a member of the Fond du Lac Reservation in Minnesota. Northrup lived a traditional lifestyle in his early years. As a child, he attended an Indian boarding school where he suffered physical abuse. Later in life, he served in the Vietnam war and experienced PTSD. Much of his poetry comes from these hardships.

Works: Walking the Rez Road, Rez Salute: The Real Healer Dealer, Anishinaabe Syndicated.

Duke Redbird was born in Saugeen First Nation. He became a ward of Children's Aid at nine months old when his mother died in a house fire. He began writing to give words to his experiences as an Indigenous man raised by white foster families. He is recognized as a key figure in the development of First Nations literature.

His poetry is available on his site.

Denise Sweet is a member of the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota. Sweet served as Wisconsin's Poet Laureate from 2004-2008. She has taught creative writing, literature, and mythology at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Works: Songs for Discharming, Palominos Near Tuba City.

Mark Turcotte is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band. Turcotte is a visiting assistant professor of English at DePaul University. He has published two books of poetry. His chapbook, Road Noise, was translated into French.

Works: The Feathered Heart, Exploding Chippewas.

E. Donald Two-Rivers was raised in Emo Township, Ontario. He moved to Chicago at age 16 and became involved with the Urban Native community there. A playwright, spoken-word performer, and a poet, Two-Rivers had been an activist for Native rights since the 1970s. He was the founding director of the Chicago-based Red Path Theater Company.

Works: Powwows, Fat Cats, and Other Indian Tales, A Dozen Cold Ones by Two-Rivers.

Gerald Vizenor is an enrolled member of the White Earth Reservation. Vizenor has published over 30 books. He taught at the University of California for many years and is currently at the University of New Mexico. He has a long history of political activism and he is considered one of the most prolific Indigenous ironists writing today.

Works: Favor of Crows, Cranes Arise, Empty Swings.

[blaze-artist]

Drumming

A forgotten part of me

The moment I sit down at the drum, all the tension leaves my body and I feel at peace. It feels like I can breathe freely again, like there are no responsibilities waiting for me once the drumming ends, I feel myself… 

With each hit of the drumstick hitting the drum that makes the beautiful songs of my culture, everything seems to fade around me, the chatter of students, the talks between the teachers, the texting, the laughter, the calls, all of it fade around me. All I hear is the calming beat of the drumming and the singing.

When I sit down at the drum drumming, all the weight of the world is lifted from my shoulders, even if it is for a moment. It is a moment of freedom for me,  as it makes me feel connected to the creator and mother earth. 

The Stories that are behind the songs that are sung at the drum with courage, the drumming that accompany the songs, that is what brings the songs alive for me. That is what brings me peace, what brings me freedom, even if it is just for a moment. 

The moment I am at the drum drumming to my heart's content, I am myself… The drum, the drumming, the singing, the stories that are told, the mother earth, the creator. They are what is healing a part of me that I have lost long ago, a part of me that I am still finding amongst the darkness I am still finding my way out of…

I am myself the moment I sit at the drum… Even if it is for a moment...

Blaze