I Wish I'd Written This

LEAKS

dirt road
open windows

beautiful one, too perfect for this world

the immediacy of mosquitos
humidity choking breath

my beautiful singing bird

five year old ogitchidaakwe*
crying silent, petrified tears in the backseat
until the dam finally bursts

you are the breath over the ice on the lake. you are the one the grandmothers sing to through the rapids. you are the saved seeds of allies. you are the space between embraces

she’s always going to remember this

you are rebellion, resistance, re-imagination

her body will remember

you are dug up roads, 27 day standoffs, the foil of industry prospectors 

she can’t speak about it for a year, which is 1/6 of her life 

for every one of your questions there is a story hidden in the skin of the forest. use them as flint, fodder, love songs, medicine. you are from a place of unflinching power, the holder of our stories, the one who speaks up

the chance for spoken up words drowned in ambush

you are not a vessel for white settler shame,

even if I am the housing that failed you

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

*(ogichidaakwe is holy woman)

Leanne Simpson wrote this poem, made into a song, when her small daughter experienced racism for the first time. One feels the pain of a mother who cannot protect her child from a sometimes hostile world. In her closing line, she takes the blame on herself for failing her child. But the fault lies with the one causing the hurt, and the nation-wide dominant culture of colonialism and oppression. My whiteness is part of that cultural hurt. I struggle with that.




I have just discovered this amazing poet, writer, singer/songwriter, activist and academic, and am excited to share her with you. Ms Simpson is a noted and powerful voice on indigenous issues in Canada. She is from Mississauga, Ontario, and has authored many books and papers, making many appearances where she speaks eloquently on these topics. Active in the Idle No More protests,  her songs, story-telling and spoken word performances speak about the effects of colonization on indigenous cultures, about racism, the missing and murdered indigenous women of Canada, and the very personal feelings of being indigenous in a settler society.

At the closing of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Ms Simpson said, “I felt angry, not reconciled.” (Rather than reconciliation, perhaps we should be aiming for reparation. In my opinion.)

Leanne Simpson is of Michi Saaqiig Nishnaabeg ancestry, and is a member of the Alderville First Nation in Mississauga, a sub-nation of the Ojibways.

She has been quoted as saying, “Poetry holds space for other worlds. Worlds that exist in spite of the tremendous violence of colonialism or anti-Blackness. Poetry allows us to feel and taste and breathe freedom.” Aho.

If you are interested in reading more of her work, I recommend “i am graffiti”, “Broken Berries”, and “Spacing”. She writes so powerfully, with love, humour, and anguish, about the truth of her life, and the lives of her people. She has many books out, and you can find out more about her and her work at her website here.

Material shared in 'I Wish I'd Written This' is presented for study and review. Poems, photos and other writings remain the property of the copyright owners, usually their authors.