Kimberly Blaeser

Kimberly Blaeser (1955- ) was raised on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota by parents of Anishinaabe and German descent. She is a member of the Minnesota Chippewa tribe. She has written several volumes of poetry. Blaeser founded In-Na-Po (Indigenous Nations Poets), and co-founded the multicultural writers’ organization Word Warriors. She teaches at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and Institute of American Indian Arts and lives with her family in rural Wisconsin. 

About Standing (in Kinship)

We all have the same little bones in our foot

twenty-six with funny names like navicular.

Together they build something strong—

our foot arch a pyramid holding us up.

The bones don’t get casts when they break.

We tape them—one phalange to its neighbor for support.

(Other things like sorrow work that way, too—

find healing in the leaning, the closeness.)

Our feet have one quarter of all the bones in our body.

Maybe we should give more honor to feet

and to all those tiny but blessed cogs in the world—

communities, the forgotten architecture of friendship.

— Kimberly Blaeser