In 2025, Birgit Däwes, Karsten Fitz, and Sabine N. Meyer dedicated an issue of Amerikastudien/American Studies to the impact writer Diane Glancy has had on the global literary landscape. Her work spans all forms and has shared with the world a way to write about North America with love and honesty.

As a fellow poet who has often taught her work, Margaret Noodin was asked to write a poem about Diane. Diane spent many years in Minnesota and once spent an afternoon with Diane long ago in Gichi-Onigaming. The poem “Maamidonendamowakikwe” describes the way Diane’s work reminds readers to walk the land, absorb it, and come to know it as a part of who we all are.

The entire issue can be found here: https://amst.winter-verlag.de/article/amst/2025/1/6/display/html

Play audio: Maamidonendamowakikwe

by Margaret Noodin

Walk the land. Describe it.
Own it with your words.
What is land? It is thought. It is language.
(Diane Glancy, “Use of Ownership” 9)

Maamidonendaagwad giiwedinong
It was seen in the north how

ingoding gii-ezhi-dagoshing wesabiked
a spinner once arrived

bwaawaakizod ji-dibaajimod
bearing the embers of many stories

giinaamakakong biitoogwaadenoon
in sharp-edged boxes lined with

waate-adaawaaganan anaamay’ii niimidiwag.
fur electrified by the path of souls.

Maamidonendaagozi geyabi Zhaawanikwe
The Southern Woman may recall still

gii-endazhi-ziiga’andaaged ge azhashki miijid
the way the earth offered a taste of renewal

gii-ezhi-nagamtawaawaad anangoog dibaganeg
the way the stars sang of time

mii ge bekaadendaagozid biniskwaabiiginang
as she patiently unfolded

gegoo akiing gikino’aamawiyangidwaa.
what the land was able to teach.

Mayaaamidonendang bashagiishkaanakwad
She is the one who considers the scattered clouds

ezhi-dibendaagwadoon basadinaa,
the way they belong to the settled valleys,

onji-dibendaagoziyang ezhi-ineweyang
the way we all belong to the sounds we make,

ezhi-zaagi’idiyang gaye zhiingenimidiyang
how in our histories of love and hate

apiichi-banaaji’idiyang zazagwanaa.
we devour one another again and again.

Maamidonenimishikangen, Maamidonendamowakikwe,
Watch us, Earth Watching Woman,

ge agindaasomang gaa-ozhibii’aman
as we absorb what you have written

ge naanaagadawendaamang asinii-oboodashkoonishiinhningwiiganan,
as we study dragonfly wings in stone,

makwa-bimosed miinawaa gimoodikanan
bear-walkers and stolen paths

mii dash debinigaadeyang asabiing debweyendamowin.
to be caught in the web of believing.