BEYOND BUCKSKIN: Project 562: Changing The Way We See Native America

• BEYOND BUCKSKIN By Dr. Jessica R. Metcalfe

  

  
  Project 562: Changing The Way We See Native America  The images that Edward Curtis shot over 100 years ago continue to be popular representations of what an Indian is supposed to look like today. So when Native photographer Matika Wilbur picked up her camera …Read more

Cathedral of Leaves

By Linda Boyden

Grandmothers sit

around a small table;

above their silvered hair

oak boughs weave

a cathedral of leaves,

for shade and secrecy.

Grandmothers sip tea,

the clink of their cups

pepper their thin voices

as they spin Forever Stories

to soothe or amuse

or guide a troubled child.

Grandmothers quilt

a patchwork of words;

stitch the bliss of a first kiss

onto the death of a language;

hem a baby’s first smile

on the memory of a massacre.

Grandmothers spark stories,

their pale voices bloom

under the cathedral of leaves,

where remembering

becomes a sacred thing.

Copyright © Linda Boyden. All rights reserved.

Linda Boyden is a storyteller, illustrator, poet and the author of The Blue Roses from Low Books 2002, winner New Voices Award, Paterson Prize and Wordcraft Circle's Book of the Year, 2003, Powwow's Coming the University of New Mexico Press, 2007, Giveaways, An ABC Book of Loanwords from the Americas", written and illustrated by Linda Boyden (University of New Mexico Press). Giveaways is the winner of three Finalist awards from the 2011 International Book Awards, two Finalist Awards from the 2011 New Mexico Book Awards and included in 2012 California Collections form the CA. Reading Association. Linda's 4th picture book, Boy and Poi Poi Puppy  was published by Progressive Rising Phoenix Press, 2013.