Layli Long Soldier Q&A on her poem ’38’
Layli Long Soldier talks about how she came to write her poem, “38.”
Layli Long Soldier
Edge
This drive along the road the bend the banks behind the wheel I am called Mommy. My name is Mommy on these drives the sand and brush the end of winter we pass. You in the rearview double buckled back center my love. Your mother’s mouth has a roof your mother’s mouth is a church. […]
WHEREAS: Resolution 1
(1) I commend this land and this […]
WHEREAS a friend
WHEREAS a friend senses what she calls cultural emptiness in a poet’s work and after a reading she feels bad for feeling bad for the poet she admits. I want to respond the same could be said for my work some sticky current of Indian emptiness I feel it not just in my poems but […]
from Vaporative
However a light may come through vaporative glass pane or dry dermis of hand winter bent I follow that light capacity that I have cup-sized capture snap-like seizure I remember small is less to forget less to carry tiny gears mini- armature I gun the spark light I blink eye blink at me […]
38
Here, the sentence will be respected. I will compose each sentence with care by minding what the rules of writing dictate. For example, all sentences will begin with capital letters. Likewise, the history of the sentence will be honored by ending each one with appropriate punctuation such as a period or question […]
Layli Long Soldier
Layli Long Soldier holds a BFA in creative writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts and an MFA from Bard College. She resides in Tsaile, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation and is an English faculty member at Diné College. She has served as a contributing editor to Drunken Boat. Her poems and critical work have appeared in The […]