Art of the Week: Suzanne Rancourt’s evocative “Whose Mouth Do I Speak With”

Whose Mouth Do I Speak With by Suzanne Rancourt

I can remember my father bringing home spruce gum.
He worked in the woods and filled his pockets
with golden chunks of pitch.
For his children
he provided this special sacrament
and we’d gather at this feet, around his legs,
bumping his lunchbox, and his empty thermos rattled inside.
Our skin would stick to Daddy’s gluey clothing
and we’d smell like Mumma’s Pine Sol.
We had no money for store bought gum
but that’s all right.
The spruce gum
was so close to chewing amber
as though in our mouths we held the eyes of Coyote
and how many other children had fathers
that placed on their innocent, anxious tongue
the blood of tree?

From Billboard in the Clouds by Suzanne Rancourt. Copyright © 2004 by Suzanne Rancourt

“A good Elder inspires. I had/have good Elders,” Suzanne Rancourt writes for Dawnland Voices 2.0. “Seldom did I throw any of my work out. I filed it in file cabinets, which I carted with me through out my various homes. And even though I had professors insist that I could not be a multi-modal artist, I persisted. I found myself being more like the Earth that gave birth to different types of vegetation during different times of year, or less or more sunlight, or warm or cooler temperatures – sometimes a story was written, a poem, or a song.” 

Rancourt continues, “I spent a lot of time being an outcast and even now am somewhat of a hermit. The difference is that I am now okay with that. I’ve learned to accept that not everyone will understand my work, sometimes because I need to clarify themes, metaphor, etc., and sometimes because the cultures may be specific and unique. I’m okay with that too. Finding a home for our work is a different skill than the creating of the work.”

“I come from independent people who enjoyed travel. Mobility was supported at young ages: hiking, bicycling, driving, travel in a variety of vehicles, learning, exploring something about resonance of place and how some places ‘feel’ more than others. I was encouraged to observe, ask questions, take note of how people lived, to respect differences and similarities and to figure things out,” Suzanne Rancourt tells The Wrath-Bearing Tree. 

Suzanne Rancourt is of Abenaki/Huron descent, born and raised in the mountains of West Central Maine and currently residing in the Adirondack Mountains. Her book Billboard in the Clouds was the winner of the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas First Book Award.  Rancourt is a US Marine Corps veteran. She is a multi modal Expressive Arts Therapist, Consultant, Educator with graduate degrees and certifications in psychology, creative writing, and drug and alcohol recovery.