April 3rd & 4th Poems

First is April 3rd’s poem for #NationalPoetryMonth

After listening to a member of the Prairie Island Indian Community sing his fathers song as a blessing for us all to be together last night - I wrote this poem.

My intention is to write a poem a day. My other intention is to not allow my tendency towards perfectionism get in the way of me just writing them, yet not putting them out into the world.

Those who know me, know this is hard. It’s hard to not sit and nitpick and edit and rewrite until time immemorial. It’s also difficult to put them out into the world as I am often afraid of other people’s opinions and judgement.

Consider challenging yourself to be creative and to play without regards to what other people think!

April 4th Poem:

Last night I went to Honoring Dakota at the Red Wing Public Library where we learned about the Buffalo Project and the Prairie Island Indian Community

It was amazing and well attended. They allowed me to take a paper with “Traditional Uses of the Buffalo” which listed what each part of the relative could be used for. It became my writing prompt for this one.

Ah - to use every part of everything and take only what we need. Boy oh boy do I long for those times.

Thank you #HonoringDakota #PrairieIsland and the many many people and organizations who are bringing this to life. It’s about time we listened!!!!!!!

Anyone local - check out Honoring Dakota for future events. Thank you Little Sister for turning me on to this. @alyriggs