Elder Dealing with Emotional Thoughts and His Elderhood Experiences

This scarred elder Stood in the final Abandonment. Scalded Raw by the lively smirks of the youth. Sssh, sssh aging ah-coming, Ah-coming for the youth. Sssh, sssh.

David sa-see Spencer Sr. is the author of four poetry chapbooks and an autobiography of his life up to the age of 19. He was raised by his tribal grandparents on the Tulalip Indian Reservation, Tulalip, Washington. He is 85 years old and a tribal elder enrolled in The Tulalip Tribes. David retired from the General Telephone Company, Everett, Washington, after thirty years of employment. He attended the Everett Community College, Everett, Washington, and the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. David studied poetry from Nelson Bentley, a poet and English Professor at the University of Washington. The chapbook cover’s photograph is a cement head handmade by David Spencer Sr. He is a visual artist who has created linocut block prints, paintings, dichro glass fusing of pendants, wood carvings, small cement sculptures and short videos of reading his own poetry and chanting his own tribal Lushootseed songs.