Proposal for 2019 International Symposium on Poetic Inquiry

Charity Becker

Being a first-language English speaker has given me privilege. Yet, English is not the
first language of my country nor of many of the students I teach. Through English, I am able to
share my stories with my students, but my students’ stories cannot always be told through
English. So I work to create a place where my students’ indigenous languages are embraced.
Through poetry I am able to do this.

mother tongue

English
is my mother tongue.
A mother tongue is not
not a foreign lan lan lang
language
l/anguish
anguish
--a foreign anguish.

English is
my father tongue.
A father tongue is
a foreign language,
therefore English is
a foreign language
not a mother tongue. 1

english is
my mother tongue
tongue which
nourished
nestled
named

but english is also

my father tongue
tongue of
power
persuasion
privilege

english is
my mother tongue
but not the mother tongue
of my country
english is
the father tongue
the foreign anguish
of my country

how might i reconcile

my mother/father tongue
with what tongue might i
learn
love
live?

so i seek out
other tongues
indigenous
immigrant
imagined
and with these tongues
i write
the hybrid poetry of my heart

poetry is not
a foreign anguish
a foreign language
a father tongue

poetry is
a mother tongue
my mother tongue

in my mother tongue
let me share
my story
my scholarship
my self
with you
1Philip, M. N. (1989). Discourse on the logic of language. She tries her tongue, her silence
slowly breaks . Charlottetown, PE: Ragweed Press. pp. 56-59.