Transcript: Poems on Air, Episode 78 - Martha Ronk

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]

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    • 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.

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