For a second year Missoula Writing Collaborative resident-writer Robert E. Lee returned to (a newly-paved) Hydaburg, Alaska, for a month-long residency at Hydaburg School. Watch for news of this residency in an upcoming issue of State of the Arts, the newsletter of the Montana Arts Council. Meanwhile, enjoy some writing from the residency, plus a few photos.
ANDREA
If I were a totem pole
All the Haida knowledge
Would be in me.
I feel so tall against
Other people,
So powerful.
When I get old, I will be weak
But I won't be taken down
For generations.
So, come people, look
At my Haida design marks.
Parts start falling off me.
I get cracks in me
But I still feel strong.
Years go by.
I am taken down.
People are happy.
Some are sad.
I am so sad.
I am taken down.
It starts with a hard cut
To my trunk.
I can smell the sawdust
Getting shredded beneath me.
I am happy, though,
A new me
Is created.
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