Where I am From Poem

The WHERE I'M FROM Template

I am from _______ (specific ordinary item), from _______ (product name) and _______.

I am from the _______ (home description... adjective, adjective, sensory detail).

I am from the _______ (plant, flower, natural item), the _______ (plant, flower, natural detail)

I am from _______ (family tradition) and _______ (family trait), from _______ (name of family member) and _______ (another family name) and _______ (family name).

I am from the _______ (description of family tendency) and _______ (another one).

From _______ (something you were told as a child) and _______ (another).

I am from (representation of religion, or lack of it). Further description.

I'm from _______ (place of birth and family ancestry), _______ (two food items representing your family).

From the _______ (specific family story about a specific person and detail), the _______ (another detail, and the _______ (another detail about another family member).

I am from _______ (location of family pictures, mementos, archives and several more lines indicating their worth).

Adapted by Levi Romero from the original poem, “Where I’m From,” by George Ella Lyon.

If possible, incorporate bilingual references used in your family (Spanish, Diné, Tewa, Tiwa, German, Italian, etc.). Use words, quotes, common sayings, objects and images that represent your family’s traditions.

Example by Angelina Grey:

Where I Am From/Na’sha’déi’/De donde yo soy

I am from Spider Woman’s spinning tools

From the Snow Cap Lard and da’diniilyaa’zh (frybread)

I am from the place of Łlazh’łizhiin (black soil)

K’iinol tsdisii (dust devils), the smell of rain and beauty

I am from the ts’á (sagebrush), the ch’á’ooł (juniper trees)

The old lady goat named Daisy, my childhood riding companion

the tarantula I carried home in my two small hands

whose long lost gone limbs I remember

as if they were my own.

I’m from Kit Carson’s Scorched Earth Campaign and Hwéeldi’ (Bosque Redondo)

from the 1868 Treaty and the Carlisle Experience

I’m from the stubbornness and tough love of Habah

from the half-hearted “love” and abandonment of the Black Sheep Clan.

I am from Asdzaa’ Na’dłee’hí’ (Changing Woman) and the animals

and the insect people of the previous four worlds.

I’m from na’daał tsó’ (yellow corn) and na’daał ghái’ (white corn)

I’m from the place of natural springs and da’aké (cornfields)

go’whe’ (coffee) and the yaa’teeł (sheepskin mattress)

From the threadbare Levi jeans of Luke Sr.

the soft laughter of shí masani’ (my maternal grandmother)

the Lucky Strikes of my great-grandmother

Asdzaa’ A’di’ka’í’ (the Gambling Woman)

Whose long gone limbs I remember

As if they were my own

The dła’kaał (Navajo dress) that waved behind

Habah as my little feet tried to keep up with her haste,

The long forgotten feel on shí naali’s (paternal grandmother) hands,

The commodity cheese and bilaaghana bikós’ (canned beef),

And the sign of age and wisdom capsulated in the wrinkles of the skin.