NativeTech: Native American Technology and Art ~ Poems & Stories
Be Strong

By

Edward Ivan Madahbee

The creator has only created life

It is not his duty to show us the way

We must guide ourselves through life

To truly be accepted into his arms

We should not have to ask for favors

And he should not have to provide them

What we take from our mother earth

We must give back with respect and love

Until we are able to accept who we are

We will always suffer at our own fate

We have to create our own destiny

Or does destiny create us?

I have always loved writing and even tried writing a book when i was a teenager. I never had the time to finish it though, now it's lost. The reason i wrote this poem is because i have had a hard life. I belong to a family of eight brothers and one sister. We were always poor and so many of them are caught up in the bad life. I wish I could help them, but they don't want it. I grew up afraid of what they might do and could do. They are abusive in every way, they hurt themselves mostly, others now and then, and there family members half the time. My mother is a saint, and even after all she has been through, she stills loves us dearly. When I write this poem I think of my mother.

Return to the Poems and Stories Menu
Text © 2000 - 2001 Edward Ivan Madahbee. E-mail: wiiyas@hotmail.com
Image credit: "Woman with Blueberries", a 1971 watercolor by Patrik Des Jarlait (from the cover of "Chippewa Customs", Frances Densmore, 1979).

NativeTech Home Page

Web Design & Graphics © 1994-2001 Tara Prindle.