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A Muckleshoot Poetry Anthology

A Muckleshoot Poetry Anthology

At the Confluence of the Green and White Rivers

Selected by Susan Landgraf

Published by: WSU Press

Imprint: WSU Press

110 Pages, 152.00 × 229.00 mm

Paperback
9780874224283
Published: February 2024

£7.99

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Description
Contents
Authors
Praise

When Susan Landgraf received an Academy of American Poets' Laureate in 2020, her project proposal included teaching more than a dozen workshops on the Muckleshoot Indian Reservation that would culminate in a Muckleshoot poetry book. Landgraf sees writing as both opening oneself to vulnerability and to a feeling of empowerment. She believes that poetry can save lives, and worked to facilitate a teaching environment that welcomed each voice. Her exercises, prompts, and discussions sparked creativity and critical thinking, and invited young people and elders to reflect on their history, culture, and current lives in a meaningful way.

Ultimately, fifty-four poets--most from the Muckleshoot Tribal School--participated in the collection. Expressive and moving, their pieces are about searching and belonging. Loss and finding. The writers range from elementary school age to adult, but all share a common theme--a reaching back and a reaching forward--sometimes in the same poem. Their work highlights Muckleshoot history and culture, but also spotlights individual histories, lessons, and beliefs.

Muckleshoot is the Native name for the prairie on which the 6.128 square-mile reservation was established in 1857. Federally recognized as descendants of the Duwamish and Upper Puyallup people who inhabited Central Puget Sound thousands of years before non-Indian settlement, approximately 3,600 people live on the reservation, making the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe one of the largest Native American tribes in Washington State.

Celeste Adame

Chasing Shadows
Medicine Creek in Four Parts
Prelude to a New Girlfriend
Something About Breath

Lisa Amick

Visitor

Donovan Ang

My Friend

Anonymous

Untitled

Anonymous

Bass Guitar

Anonymous

Home

Anonymous

What does home mean?

Anonymous

Snowshoes

Anonymous

Untitled

Anonymous

Woodpecker

Briana Arvizu

Seasons

Paul Johnson-Bethely

Home

Paige Courville

Untitled

Jack Crowell

Untitled

Derek Daniels

Basketball

Jaison Elkins

Cowboys and Indians 2012

Artwork: CVI, by Samuel Obrovac

Xander Elkins

Night Time Guilt

Tyla Freeman

Untitled

TLG

1-100 Real Quick
Grama

Zip Green

Blackfish

Joanne Harrison

Where I Came From
Home from the Past
Of Service to Others
A Jugful of Dimes

Artwork: Four Eagles, by Samuel Obrovac

Lashawna Jackson

Expectations
Adventures in the Night

Karley James

My Dad

Harley Jansen

Untitled

Aliyanna Tiznado-Jansen

Untitled

Madisen LaCour

Where do I come from?

Madison Loggins

Untitled

Blaze Lozier

What is home?

Lillian Lozier

Untitled

Artwork: Frog, by Samuel Obrovac

Brandan McCarty

Dancing Toes
Brown Glass
Love of Old

Gavin McCoy

Positivity and Hate

Ada Marie McDaniel

I Am From

Artwork: I Am, by Samuel Obrovac

Shyla Michell

Untitled

Brandon Moran

Untitled

Chad Millan Moses and Aron Ortiz

Untitled

Morgan Moses

Where I Come From
What Is Home?

Samuel Obrovac

Home

Johnelle Ramirez (Moses)

A Poem for Edna & Ashley

Leah Simeon

The River on the Reservation

Artwork: Ponderosa, by Samuel Obrovac

Donny Stevenson

When I Am an Ancestor

Samuel Obrovac

Circle

Rickylee Thompson

New Memories of Me
The Witness
Addiction
Take Us Back
Our Elder Speaks

Trinity Ulrich

Untitled

Kyla Valles

Untitled

Isadore Van Brunt

Polar

Kristal Vejar

Anger

Sariah Walden

Home

Troy White Eagle

The Life of Troy

Anna Whitefoot

Haiku

Cameron Williams

Haiku

Where do you come from?

Gerri L. Williams

Ghosts of a Crystal Page
Leaves in October
The Whale

Kai Williams

Untitled

Nicholas Wilson

Home? What Is Home?

Poet and journalist Susan Landgraf is the author of What We Bury Changes the Ground and The Inspired Poet, a book of writing exercises. Her newest title is Crossings. She has taught at Highline College and Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, as well as the Port Townsend Writers' Conference. She served as Poet Laureate of Auburn, Washington, from 2018 to 2020.

Empowering our students to use written words to highlight our history and culture is so powerful." - Willard Bill Jr., Cultural Director, Muckleshoot Indian Tribe