Description
Constant Fires, the second collection of poems from award-winning Chickasaw poet Rebecca Hatcher Travis, brings readers to a deeper understanding of the Chickasaw people and Native perspective. Travis’s poetry captures the stories, struggles, and people of past generations, rejoices in the continuation and determination of Indigenous Americans, and celebrates the beauty of nature and our connection to the natural world.
The collection includes sixty original poems organized into four sections. The first, “Blood Streaks,” brings Indian Territory to life, with its tumultuous and poignant history smoldering just beneath the surface. The second, “Stirrings,” shares reflections of tribal families and relationship, often gleaned from Travis’s personal experience. The third section, “Voices in Place,” pulls the reader toward hope and the future, with poems about reconnection to people and the land. The fourth, “Earth Echoes,” guides a brilliant journey through the natural world.
Travis’s poetry calls upon Chickasaws and other Indigenous Americans to remain vigilant and attentive toward our people and our place in North America and in the world.
Constant Fires shouts the Native message from the mountaintops, “Hey! We are still here!”