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Printed from https://writing.com/main/newsletters/action/archives/id/9515
Poetry: May 01, 2019 Issue [#9515]




 This week: First Nations Poet Lee Maracle
  Edited by: eyestar~* Author IconMail Icon
                             More Newsletters By This Editor  Open in new Window.

Table of Contents

1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
7. Removal instructions

About This Newsletter

*Delight*{Hi readers! I am back as guest editor for this edition. I was looking at some first nations readings for a project I am working on and came across some wonderfully aware and potent first nations authors. Lee Maracle is one whose work I enjoyed. I hope you will too.


Word from our sponsor



Letter from the editor

Lee Maracle is an award winning poet, novelist, storyteller, actor and keeper/mythmaker of the of Stó:lō people in British Columbia. A prolific author and academic she is an authority on issues about aborginal people and literature. She was one of the earliest First Nations writers to be published in the early 1970's.

Lee was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, July 5, 1950 a Salish First Nations woman, granddaughter of the well known Chief Dan George. She dropped out of school and became an activitist, eventually going to Fraser Univiersity.

Maracle has taught at the University of Toronto, University of Waterloo, Southern Oregon University and has served as professor of Canadian culture at Western Washington University.
She was one of the founders of the En'owkin International School of Writing in Penticton, BC (1981); a learning institute with an Indigenous Fine Arts Program and an Okanagon Language Program.

In 2017, Maracle was presented the Bonham Centre Award from The Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, University of Toronto, for her contributions to the advancement and education of issues around sexual identification.

Her newest poetry book, Hope Matters, was written with her daughters Columpa Bobb and Tania Carter.

She lives in Toronto, teaching at the University of Toronto First Nations House.

Her poetry is potent and evocative with strong messages that reflect her antipathy toward racism, sexism, and white cultural domination.

This one speaks of the Old Empire's Language from her book "Bent Box"

“The Language Leaked from my Lips”

The language leaked from my lips in letters too short and too young
to help me understand that remembering had some significance.

The language you gave me failed me, failed to assist me in those
moments when invasion fell upon my private self.

Now my language, so richly textured with instruction, is stripped of
emotion’s unraveling expression of possibility.

This possibility’s poesy, story, hopeful imagination, died in the dark
on the floor in the puddle of my leaked letters.

My lips emptied of light cannot imagine dark whose actuality was my
pathway to future dreamworld carving.

My forever light precludes dreaming in the dark, the starkness of
constant light burns holes through the curtain of hope outside my word puddle.

Letters dance lonely in the stark light at the edge of this pool. Their
death throes mourn my dead dark night.

I crawl about collecting letters, rearranging them, playing with
meaning, grabbing whatever I can from wherever they appear.

These letters feel foreign, scrape at the meaning in my mind, tear at
the yearing of my soul and dance just out of reach of my heart.

Lee Maracle
https://zocalopoets.com/category/poets/lee-maracle/

In this link, she reads her poem on Residential Schools Apology.
https://pennyspoetry.fandom.com/wiki/File:Poem_Lee_Maracle_Aboriginal_Apology_Re...

Two of her poems are linked here:
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/511939
https://pennyspoetry.fandom.com/wiki/File:The_Basement_Revue_Lee_Maracle

Lee Maracle has appeared on many talk shows and performing events to share her passion, knowledge and expression. A true influencer of our time.*Smile*

Thanks for reading.
*Delight*



Editor's Picks

Some of our authors pay tribute to First Nations. *Star*

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Torment in a Residential School Open in new Window. (ASR)
Poem for Project Write World: Team Canada. Second Place. Quill Award 2016
#2096041 by eyestar~* Author IconMail Icon

Ceremony Open in new Window. (E)
For those of Native American blood- generations back. Separation from spiritual roots.
#1487884 by SWPoet Author IconMail Icon

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Bison Thirst Open in new Window. (E)
Poem Written For Native American First Peoples Group Contest
#2026824 by ♥HOOves♥ Author IconMail Icon

 
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Spiraling Across the Ages Open in new Window. (E)
Pondering Petroglyphs... - - - Word Picture Contest / Free Verse - 1/27/19 line count = 32
#2180406 by 🎼 RRodgersWrites 🎶 Author IconMail Icon

 I See Old Ones Open in new Window. (E)
Native American spiritual experience
#1156020 by turtlemoon-dohi Author IconMail Icon

 
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Sad Truths Open in new Window. (E)
Contemplating pride in westward movement juxtaposed with injustices and broken treaties
#2185439 by 🎼 RRodgersWrites 🎶 Author IconMail Icon


 Invalid Item Open in new Window.
This item number is not valid.
#2162300 by Not Available.

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Rebel Poetry Contest Open in new Window. (18+)
Open for March 2024
#2112615 by Warped Sanity Author IconMail Icon

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Second Time Around ~ Birthday Special Open in new Window. (E)
Have you entered previous contests that you didn't win? Do you feel cheated? Step inside.
#2164876 by Choconut Author IconMail Icon

 
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Ask & Answer

*Heart*Thank you for your kind responses to my last newsletter "Poetry Newsletter (March 6, 2019)Open in new Window.

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