Rena's Web Site

Rena Priest is a citizen of the Lhaq’temish [Lummi] Nation. In a historic appointment, Priest was named Washington state’s sixth poet laureate (2021–2023), becoming the first Indigenous person to hold the position. In this role, she championed poetry that celebrated the ecological gifts of her ancestral homelands, the bioregion.

She is an Academy of American Poets Fellow, an Indigenous Nations Poets Fellow, a Maxine Cushing Gray Distinguished Writer, and winner of a Washington State Book Award for poetry.

Her new essay collection, Positively Uncivilized, was published (October 2025) as the inaugural winner of the Keepers of the Fire Award from Raven Chronicles Press.

She splits time between Bellingham, Washington, and Vancouver, British Columbia.

The Forest for the Trees

I have seen a tree split in two
from the weight of its opposing branches.
It can survive, though its heart is exposed.
I have seen a country do this too.

I have heard an elder say
that we must be like the willow—
bend not to break.
I have made peace this way.

I have seen a tree grown ’round
a bicycle, a street sign, and a chainsaw,
absorbing them like ingredients
in a great melting pot.

When we speak, whether or not
we agree, the trees will turn
the breath of our words
from carbon dioxide back into air—

give us new breath
for new words,
new chances to listen,
new chances to be heard.

The Rental Dog

The train came and the man
sat next to me, showed me
a photo of his daughter, told me
the story of his life. "Kicked out!"

he said, of the German air-force,
his marriage, his home. He
had just returned from New Mexico…
“I was out there living in a teepee,

trying to get clean of the New York guck.”
He paused,
“My rental dog was eaten by coyotes.
They lured him with a female in heat.

They’re cannibals you know.”
The dog's true owner was a hippie girl.
She took the news like business.
“It’s nature, stupid dog,” was all she said.

Later, I told his story to an optimist
named Nancy. She believes:
“The dog ran away with the coyotes.
Shrugged off his rental dog existence;

became a real dog, baying at the moon.”
But looking at this man, I remembered
hearing that a pet takes on
the characteristics of its companion,

and Nancy's theory seems implausible,
for this man has in his eyes the look
of a rental dog, unloved, and therefore,
easily lured and devoured

Cover art by Sarah Katharina Kayss

Patriarchy Blues

MoonPath Press is an imprint of Concrete Wolf