The following transcript is provided for accessibility only. Layout, formatting, and typography of poems may differ from the original text. We recommend referring to the original, published works when possible to experience the poems as intended by their authors.
[Music intro]
LYNNE THOMPSON: Hello! My name is Lynne Thompson, Poet Laureate for the City of Los Angeles, and I’m so happy to welcome listeners to this installment of Poems on Air, a podcast supported by the Los Angeles Public Library. Every week, I’ll present the work of poets I admire, poets who you should know, and poets who have made a substantial and inimitable contribution to the art and craft of poetry.
LYNNE THOMPSON: Because the craft of poetry is seldom an endeavor by which a living wage can be earned, many poets work in the academy; that is, they teach at all levels of education. As is often the case, these working poets are among the best at their craft and the poets of Los Angeles are great examples of this excellence. One of those poets, Martha Ronk, was the recipient of the Sterling Award for scholarly excellence at Occidental College and also received a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. The author and editor of several books and anthologies of poetry, Ronk’s most recent collection is The Place One Is.
LYNNE THOMPSON: Today’s poem is "Scraps of Indigenous History" by Martha Ronk
"Scraps of Indigenous History"
scratched hinterlands and the far-flung cased behind glass collected in multiples piecemeal and over time stitched with fishing twine housed in museum vaults the ongoing catapulted into waters moving out to unfinished sentences songs of smoke marks on clay a leg lifted in a dance no one remembers land lived on is only for feet dusty imprints blown away a headdress woven feathered ribbon-trimmed beauty seared into skin tattooed stripes on the chin scripts of uninformed information eluded, erased land forms left snake-like telling us in what dialect anonymous was what was Wiyot was imprinted with a map was dark of face was blue unborn was landlocked was unnamed was pictured only as the unseen
LYNNE THOMPSON: The Los Angeles Poet Laureate was created as a joint program between the City’s Department of Cultural Affairs and the Los Angeles Public Library and this podcast is available wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening!
[Music outro]
- Back to Poems on Air: Episode 78
DISCLAIMER: This is NOT a certified or verbatim transcript, but rather represents only the context of the class or meeting, subject to the inherent limitations of real-time captioning. The primary focus of real-time captioning is general communication access and as such this document is not suitable, acceptable, nor is it intended for use in any type of legal proceeding. Transcript provided by the author.