Title
Suzanne Rancourt
Description
Suzanne Rancourt is a Native American poet, veteran of both the United States Marine Corps and the United States Army, and a regular Jack of all trades (Erdrich). Rancourt connects with people through her poetry, as well as through other art forms, and through instructive positions and jobs she has held.
About Her Life
Rancourt was born and raised in west central Maine as part of the Abenaki Bear Clan, of which she is now an elder, though she currently lives in Hadley, New York(Archuleta 74; “Birthing the Drum” ; Birns 17). She not only has a Masters of Fine Arts in Poetry from Vermont College but also a Master of Science in Educational Psychology from University at Albany, SUNY (Erdrich). With her degrees and several abilities, Rancourt has coordinated Pow wows, and held workshops on several topics including drum making (“Birthing the Drum” ; Keyser). She has worked as a counselor for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in New York and has also worked as a parent education specialist for a Head Start Program in the northern part of New York (Rancourt 68; Erdrich). Among other things, Rancourt is also a singer/songwriter, a personal fitness trainer, a percussionist, an herbal educator, and a dance instructor (Erdrich) Rancourt is not afraid to try it all and to spread her knowledge to others.
About Her Writing
Suzanne Rancourt’s work has appeared in numerous locations. It has been published in several literary journals including Callaloo and The Cimmaron Review, as well as many other anthologies (Rancourt “Poets & Writers”). Her most notable work is her collection of poetry calledBillboard in the Clouds, which won the Native Writer’s Circle of the Americas First Book Award in 2001, while some of her other pieces appear in The Journal of Military Experience Volume II.
The Journal of Military Experience
The Journal of Military Experience contains prose, poetry, and artwork from veterans all across the United States. The goal of the journal is to express what it is truly like to serve and to “facilitat[e] a dialogue that can bridge the gap between civilians and those who serve” (The Journal of Military Experience). Rancourt published five different poems in this journal and while many of her other poems showcase stories of her life outside of the military, of her family, and of nature, the poems in this journal are packed with raw emotion all focused on her experiences in the military and army. Rancourt expresses the same intenseness that she does in her other poetry and remains true to her simplistic style for which she has been praised for (Birns 20). Her poems are rather short, but are packed with vivid images that speak of the aftermath of bombs, the tragedy of innocent deaths, and the confusion and exhaustion involved in serving.
Billboard in the Clouds
Suzanne Rancourt’s poetry in Billboard in the Clouds covers three different themes: her childhood, her ancestors, and her current life. The poems about her childhood include descriptions of nature, her parents, and grandparents. Ancestral poems cover stories Rancourt has heard conveying deep connections between her people and their land. Finally, poems about contemporary life cover such topics as Rancourt’s life with her son, her current home, and, in some, hints of her military experience. Many of the works in this book are a lot longer than the works she published in The Journal of Military Experience, but she presents her stories and images with the same vivid realness as in those poems. Her style is very simple, not abstract or meant to confuse. It is more like a parent or a lover sitting you down to tell a story or to express an emotion. Her work is extremely approachable because it is relatable and allows the reader to enter into her life with understanding. “Whose Mouth Do I Speak With” is one of the forty poems that appears in the book and it tells a story about Rancourt’s father from when she was young: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?” (Rancourt 21)
On the Poem
This poem allows the reader so much access to Rancourt’s life as a child. It becomes apparent that Rancourt had a positive relationship with her father growing up. He provides this special gift to his kids and Rancourt questions “how many other children had fathers” who would do something like this for them. The act of getting this gum almost seems like a ritual for her and her siblings. They beg at the father’s feet and we get this textual image of Rancourt’s father’s sticky clothing that gives off a piney scent. It is this image that pulls the reader into the moment with little Suzanne Rancourt. It is very casually mentioned by Rancourt that they did not have money, but that it did not matter. She is not bothered by the fact that her family cannot afford gum like the other kids and she seems to relish in what she has. She makes a big deal about how the spruce gum connects her to nature, how it was like “chewing amber” and holding “the eyes of Coyote” in their mouths. Then she goes on to describe it again as “the blood of tree,” almost as if the pleasure of chewing this golden, delicious thing was a gift or sacrifice of nature; the sacrifice of a Coyote’s eye or the gift of the tree’s blood. Rancourt also paints her father as being very connected to nature by telling us that he works in the woods and this comes up in a few other poems, one in which she describes her father speaking to the sky.
It is through her poetry that Suzanne Rancourt stays so connected to her culture and to their relationship with nature. Suzanne wants to share with the world both where she comes from and where she has gone in life, all in the effort to keep alive the traditions, memories, and experiences that have defined her and her people.
Works Cited
Archuleta, Elizabeth. “Billboard In The Clouds.“ World Literature Today 80.3 (2006): 74. Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Mar. 2013.
Birns, Nicholas. “The Other East Coast.” American Book Review 26.3 (2005): 17-20. Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Mar. 2013.
“Birthing a Drum”. Heartbeat Collective. Web. Retrieved 4 April, 2013.
Erdrich, Heid E., and Laura Tohe. Sister Nations: Native American Women Writers on Community. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 2002. Print.
The Journal of Military Experience 2.2 (2012): Web.
Keyser, Tom. “Even in the heat, celebration: Native American heritage group holds powwow at sweltering Route 5S site.“ Times Union (Albany, NY) 18 July 2010:Newspaper Source. Web. 21 Mar. 2013.
Rancourt, Suzanne S. Billboard in the Clouds: Poems. Willimantic, CT: Curbstone, 2004. Print.
Rancourt, Suzanne. “Suzanne Rancourt.” Poets & Writers. Poets & Writers, 9 July 2012. Web.
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