Monique Verdin: Juneteenth June 19th. Juneteenth, a day of celebration, a day of mourning. Two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, in 1865, news reaches Galveston, Texas informing enslaved peoples working on plantations that they are “free.” One hundred and three years later, Nina Simone said, “I’ll tell you what freedom is to…
Waterscapes We humans are grieving and surviving powerful moments and changing days that are moving us forward, by any means possible. We are all survivors of something and some survivors of many things. There will never be a return to what was – and really there never has been that option. The urgency…
Field Notes June 3 As of late, going to the water and woods has been more an act of survival than inspiration. The public murder of George Floyd lit tinder to an anger that has been smoldering for centuries in this landscape of the north. The inferno of human rage has ignited the world,…
Love Bytes aka An Amalgam of Time 1. I am the whisper of knowing wrapped around stones you have tossed carelessly to skim across the water- unconcerned about their destiny as they sink helplessly into the deep. 2. Midnight slipped over the curve of your palms inscribing her wisdom in sharp tongued strokes.…
Descendants and Dreamers The sky is ever bound to witness the way humans ignite like fire creating beauty and chaos- destined to ashes and memory that will fill the heavens and hell of their own making. Stars know the way I look at you from inside – the shadows of the moon winding radiance through…
Greater Horizons These pieces reflect on history and current events, with an understanding there is perpetual motion in the universe. All are reflecting on destiny, horizons, and inevitable change. There is a human story that inspired each piece. They are an honoring of significant achievement and how good Ojibwekwe energy makes the world better.…
Water Medicine When thinking about water I am always carried to significant events and places where water is critical to remembering the story. For me water is medicine and a powerful healer of soul wounds. I know it has always been necessary to be near bodies of water in order for me to thrive as…
Renewal Medicine wetland – land consisting of marshes or swamps; saturated land. marsh – an area of low-lying land which is flooded in wet seasons or at high tide, and typically remains waterlogged at all times. swamp – an area of low-lying, uncultivated ground where water collects; a bog or marsh. …
The Lilac Thief Lilacs are not sexy and this is not a sexy poem. I wanted to write a silky poem describe the intoxicating fragrance of lilacs in full bloom. I wanted to conjure memories and tie them with a pliable metaphor and an absolute adulation. The lilac spirits had other things in mind. Lilacs…
These works are continuations of the Recollection Series. They each have a back story, real or dreamed in. I have recently decided to finish each piece with hand stitching and edging so they feel more complete. I don’t know if they will evolve into another iteration or not but the seamstress in me is compelled…
Watermarks A soft voice masks the fierce currents of desire and memory left behind – in stories now told by shifting stones and river banks. Forever bound and forever lost to each other these forces surrender what they cannot hold to the river currents that answer only to movement and change. How do we…
You Are My Reservation You are earth and tears spirit and destruction disease and redemption sunrise and fear laughter and addiction shoreline and anger battles and babies memories and dogs smoke and surrender ancestors and collisions endings and songs first snow and the last dream made perfect in each torn truth that finds its…
River Heart
A River Heart I have not lived a perfect life but I live an honest one most of the time in the spaces between love and reason where precarious choices fall to their destiny. Staying honest no matter how vulnerable it feels – knowing truth is capable of changing the story to save itself from the burden of…
Read More