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A blackout poetry studio
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American Indian Stories
Zitkala-Sa remembers herself at seven, moving freely with the wind and taking courage from her mother’s teaching. Hair, fire, fear, spirit and motion make the recollection immediate, but the page is not anonymous material about childhood or an interchangeable account of Indigenous life. It belongs to a Dakota writer naming her own experience and relationship. Keep that authorship present as you read for the physical energy of the sentences and the forms of freedom they hold. A poem might follow movement, kinship, bravery or the elements, but it should arise from your attention rather than flattening the cultural and personal context surrounding the words.
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American Indian Stories
Impressions of an Indian Childhood: My Mother · Project Gutenberg English transcription
In this recollection collected in 1921, Zitkala-Sa writes of her seven-year-old self and the freedom her mother encouraged.
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