By Rebecca Hatcher Travis
imbedded in every native
heart
is love of land
this earth we stand on
live on
our homeland
among first memories
a part of us
like our own bodies
we know the connection
sweet *petrichor brings
flashes
of childhood pleasures
we will always treasure
tender as flesh
her whipping winds
thunder rumbling
dust and rains
trembling darkness
heart-melting blueness
above
our Mother
draws us outdoors
to fresh wildness
where we belong
in our special place on
this wondrous earth
*petrichor: smell of rain
Copyright © 2016, Rebecca Hatcher
Travis. All rights reserved.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rebecca Hatcher Travis, an enrolled citizen of
the Chickasaw Nation, often writes of her indigenous heritage and the beauty of
the natural world. Her poetry book manuscript, Picked Apart the Bones,
won the First Book Award from the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas and
was published by the Chickasaw Press. Her work has appeared in numerous
anthologies, literary journals and online. Ms. Travis is a member of Wordcraft
Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers and lives in south central Oklahoma,
near the land her ancestors settled in Indian Territory days. She is currently
working on another book of poetry and continues to give poetry presentations at
Oklahoma venues.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
