Portside

Washington State Poet Laureate Rena Priest celebrates the beloved “Indian Country,” even welcomes people aboard, but adds a surprise twist to the invitation.

“Donated clothes” from California, the woman who sewed meets the wearer, “a Bosnian woman/Hiding in London”—the global coincidence that inspires “Tracking the enemy.”

Jennifer Elise Foerster’s poetry depicts the natural environment—songbirds, hackberry trees, a butterfly named Question—fated for an apocalyptic ending.

On the anniversary of Columbus’s landing in the Caribbean, Virginia poet Karenne Wood depicts the tragic result for North America’s indigenous people.

“I am doing my best to not become a museum,” writes Native American poet Natalie Diaz of complexities of preserving her identity as a person among people.

Kim Shuck, current poet laureate of San Francisco, explores the complications-- mixed-up heritages, commercial indifference—of seeing the “Great Urban Indian Poem published “because culture is at its/Root not something that can be sold by chain stores.”