By: Jasmine Flowers, UA undergraduate

This poem is part of our fifth pedagogy series. To see Jessica Kidd’s commentary on the class and project, please read the first post from the series. 

 Chahta-Ima (Like a Choctaw)

“The whole of creation has a mystic sense, and breathes a divine language which is named poetry.”
– Adrien Rouquette

The Lord spoke out
“Let there be light.”
And it was so.

The smallest utterance
can bring about
a change
a truth
a life.

Everything
is poetry.
Everything.
A child’s first step
is poetry.
A crow in a tree
is poetry.
A cough in the night
is poetry.
A cut that heals
is poetry.
A cry to the Lord
is poetry.

Why should I
not listen when
another man speaks?
Or when the river babbles?
Or when the wind whispers?

Who is to say what a word
is
or
is
not?
Creole
Patois
English
Français
Chahta

Let the man speak out.
Let him speak and be heard,
so that he might stop and listen.
Let the earth praise
the Most High,
so that we might
learn from it.

I went to the forest
to speak His word
and to hear what
the Chahta
and
the Holy Spirit
had to say.

We are the Poet’s spoken word.
I will rejoice and be glad in it.

Bibliography

Adrien Rouquette. MSS.1212. W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library. Box 207.007. Folder Number 7.
Dagmar-Renshaw Lebreton. Chahta-Ima, the Life of Adrien-Emmanuel Rouquette. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1947.