Michael Thompson and Tina Deschenie Poetry Reading

Michael & Tina reflect on their recent residency at Willowtail Springs in Mancos, Colorado:

Our Willowtail Residency was a lovely gift of time and space, in the Garden Cottage, the Studio and the entire environment. My relaxed and happy soul fueled creativity and energy. With time to reflect, I found it healing to revisit and to begin to write about trauma that I had previously dismissed. Exploring different poetic devices challenged my usual writing style. It was rejuvenating to paint, and cut and glue down collages, as I had plenty of inspiration. Really, I didn’t realize how much I needed this residency until I was in the middle of it. — Tina Deschenie

Much of my life experience and writing have been intimately connected to specific places in the natural world. Willowtail’s entire environment — my encounters with deer and waterfowl and ancient trees — connected me to the land in a way that proved especially productive. As a Mvskoke person, my blood memories are often enriched by time spent on and near water. I was able to find that connection to my own experience in ways that surprised and satisfied me. Willowtail led me easily into a creative mindset that energized my Indigenous purpose. — Michael Thompson

Tina is Dine and Michael is Muskogee. They have both been educators in schools serving Native students. Their work from Willowtail residency was included in WET: An Anthology of Water Poems and Prose published by Sharehouse Press, a project of the Montezuma Food Coalition, Cortez, CO.

Michael & Tina work their ranch in Crystal, New Mexico.

Tina Deschenie: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/158143/grandmas-challenge

Michael Thompson:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/158128/red-stick-noonshine