Lest We Forget ... Remembering Through the Song of the Resilient Spirit (Critical Essay‪)‬

Everything, everybody holds within their hearts a song: songs of life, songs of timeless things and timeless places, songs of laughter, and finally, songs of death. Even when facing death and hardship, these are the songs of the resilient spirit that each person sings in his/her own way. For many of us, these songs may come in haunting melodies, in voiceless utterings, or in the rustlings of the wind as it dances through cottonwoods and tall grasses. For others, their resilient songs may be heard through the beating of the drum or through the quiet voice whispering softly between the scripted lines of prose and poem. Onondaga poet Gail Tremblay reminds us that it is important to remember these songs because "to forget is to become part of a lie" (18). Perhaps Adelphena Logan (Cayuga) provides us with an understanding of what exactly is important to remember. In her book Memories of Sweet Grass, Logan speaks of the importance of the water drum in the lives of her people, the Haudenosaunee. (1) For Logan, it seems, the voice of the water drum sings back her resilient spirit: Song, particularly the song(s) that lives within in our hearts, is important in the remembering of who we are and where we come from, without the remembrance of which, we risk becoming integrated into the lie. It is this song of remembrance, perhaps better called "the resilient song of the spirit," which is particularly prevalent in Maurice Kenny's poetry.