I am the evergreen with fading needles roots deep in sandy soils slightly burned from ancient fires a home to only the survivors

Tenille K. Campbell, I am not a wild strawberry

Nedi Nezu (Good Medicine)

April was National Poetry Month here in Canada, and I fell in love with this luscious collection by Indigenous poet Tenille K. Campbell. The poems were gorgeous, centering on love and loving through an Indigenous lens. Some were quite 🌶, too, in an evocative, wild, and defiant way. The natural world provides a strong base, and this collection pulses deep in the blood. I loved it; a strong antidote to the grim, overwhelming world right now. Good medicine indeed. 

you make me wanna slow dance under moonlight and snowflakes hand tangled in your hair led down into heartbreak and hope

Tenille K. Campbell, I want to taste your language

this is a one-sided story where my name doesn't cross his mind and I can't stop thinking about his smile

Tenille K. Campbell, I don't want this

I want to watch your wrinkles deepen under the passing full moons I want to see grey hairs appear and strong shoulders stoop as our families grow

Tenille K. Campbell, we met in late spring

I am the jagged cliffs of northern waterfalls painted upon generations ago carrying stories from a past you pretend doesn't exist

Tenille K. Campbell, I am not a wild strawberry

we're reclaiming space singing songs from the land low notes echoing down hallways hand drum on your lap long lean fingers tapping the beat you constantly hear making me dream beyond ivory towers

Tenille Campbell, Indigenous academia

I don't walk in circles with the sun know how to pray palms up but that doesn't mean I don't see the ceremony that my body holds skirt or no skirt my feet still touch the ground connecting me to mine concrete or grass latte in hand and lip gloss glittering still Indigenous

Tenille K. Campbell, urban Indigenous