Ruth Muskrat Bronson: Two Poems

If You Knew

If you could know the empty ache of loneliness,
        Masked well behind the calm indifferent face
Of us who pass you by in studied hurriedness,
            Intent upon our way, lest in the little space
Of one forgetful moment hungry eyes implore
            You to be kind, to open up your heart a little more,
I’m sure you’d smile a little kindlier, sometimes,
            To those of us you’ve never seen before.

If you could know the eagerness we’d grasp
            The hand you’d give to us in friendliness;
What vast, potential friendship in that clasp
            We’d press, and love you for your gentleness;
If you could know the wide, wide reach
            Of love that simple friendliness could teach,
I’m sure you’d say “Hello, my friend,” sometimes, 
            And now and then extend a hand in friendliness to each.

~~~

Sonnets from the Cherokee (III)

What is this nameless something that I want,
Forever groping blindly, without light,—
A ghost of pain that does forever haunt
My days, and make my heart eternal night?
I think it is your face I so long for,
Your eyes that read my soul at one warm glance;
Your lips that I may touch with mine no more
Have left me in their stead a thrusting lance
Of fire that burns my lips and sears my heart
As all the dreary wanton years wear through
Their hopeless dragging days. No lover’s art
Can lift full, heavy sorrow from my view
Or still my restless longing, purge my hate,
Because I learned I loved you, dear, too late. 

~~~

Ruth Muskrat Bronson (1897 – 1982) was a Cherokee Nation poet, educator and Indian rights activist. Ruth was born in White Water, on the Delaware Nation Reservation in Indian Territory to Ida Lenora (née Kelly), an Irish-English transplant from Missouri, and James Ezekial Muskrat, a Cherokee. Her ancestors (through her father) had traveled the Trail of Tears from Georgia to Indian Territory in the late 1830s during Indian Removal.

After completing her education, Bronson became the first Guidance and Placement Officer of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She served as executive secretary for the National Congress of American Indians, which was founded in 1944, and created their legislative news service. After a decade of work in Washington, D.C., Bronson moved to Arizona. There she served as a health education specialist for the Indian Health Service. Early life

In 1922, Muskrat went to Peking, China for an international youth conference as part of a YWCA delegation. She was one of the first Native American women to serve as a student delegate abroad. The trip, which included stops in “Hawaii, Manchuria, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong.” brought Muskrat to the attention of the international press. She was inspired to work for racial equality.

The following year, Muskrat delivered an appeal to President Coolidge for better educational facilities for Native Americans. She made the presentation at a gathering of Native American leaders, which was known as the “Committee of One Hundred”, to advise President Coolidge on American Indian policy. Muskrat advocated that Indians be involved in solving their own problems. 

In 1928, Muskrat married John F. Bronson and they adopted a native girl. Bronson spent a few years out of the workforce raising her daughter. During this period, she wrote and published several books and articles, including Indians are People Too (1944), The Church in Indian Life (1945), and Shall We Repeat Indian History in Alaska? (1947).

~~~

Poems: Public Domain

Bio adapted from Wikipedia