While doing historical research I was overwhelmed with the immense influence that the Haudenosaunee women had on the early women’s rights movement in Central NY. The model of freedom that the Haudenosaunee women of the Six Nations Confederacy demonstrated to the early feminists and suffragettes provided them with the vision, direction, and inspiration that they needed. This was not a coincidence.

Matilda Joslyn Gage, who was “written out of history” for being too radical, and other “sisters in spirit,” called out to me (despite my being a male), as needing representation and tribute in this poetry project.

I struggled with connecting the concepts and words in this poem, until Syracuse Poster Project blogger, and friend, Rosalyn Carroll, reworked the words and cadence in her watchful and attentive way. This poem is as much, or more, hers than mine. I will keep writing a daily haiku to counteract my dark phases, and to be more present and aware of these special, yet quotidian moments in time, season, and space.