Dakota Odowan: Dakota Hymns (1911)

I decided about six months ago to start a journal. As I was typing my feelings down, I noticed that they were not expressing the overwhelming emotions I was suddenly filled with. So I tried putting them in poetry form, in order to express just what I was feeling, just the way I was feeling it. After writing a few, and finally feeling a sense of emotional relief, I became addicted to poetry! These poems are my journal, my day-to-day struggles with this new spiritual path that Iam now on. These poems are my emotions, my happiness and my heartaches. Each one was a day in my life, inspired by everything around me and every possible emotion. I began to write about everything, such as how I feel when it rains or doesnat rain, or even how odd it is that time seems to slow down at certain moments in life.