{"id":633,"date":"2025-05-18T00:04:48","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T00:04:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jspork.hamiltonlits.org\/?p=633"},"modified":"2025-05-19T04:02:19","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T04:02:19","slug":"they-were-happy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jspork.hamiltonlits.org\/?p=633","title":{"rendered":"They Were Happy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignfull is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:59% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/jspork.hamiltonlits.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/fire-1-edited-768x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-566 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jspork.hamiltonlits.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/fire-1-edited-768x1025.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/jspork.hamiltonlits.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/fire-1-edited-225x300.jpeg 225w, https:\/\/jspork.hamiltonlits.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/fire-1-edited-1151x1536.jpeg 1151w, https:\/\/jspork.hamiltonlits.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/fire-1-edited-1535x2048.jpeg 1535w, https:\/\/jspork.hamiltonlits.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/fire-1-edited.jpeg 1733w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">They Were Happy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>By Sadie Rayne Antoine<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I am happy\u2026<br>I am singing with my family and favourite people<br>The deer prancing along our home<br>The stars glittering across our globe<br>Our stories carved among stone<br>I am happy\u2026<br>Down the lake I hear two Loons<br>I hear wolves howling at the moon<br>Dangling from leaves are Cocoons<br>I am happy\u2026<br>The fragrance of the flowers<br>The passing of hours<br>Oh, the community of ours<br>I am happy\u2026<br>Then the first snow<br>The sun glare glows<br>The crow flying over the meadow<br>I am happy\u2026<br>The stew was on the fire, the bannock was getting cooked<br>Then a big bang, we all looked.<br>A peaceful family, now all shook.<br>Many white men crawl over the brook.<br>I was taken away, along with my breath.<br>I never until now had a fear of death<br>My beautiful long hair was cut to length<br>I was happy\u2026<br>I woke up, and was sad it wasn\u2019t a dream<br>Desperately clinging to the beam for strength<br>Yet my weak limbs gave up on me<br>I was happy\u2026<br>They constantly called me words<br>I tried to call help to the birds<br>They made me constantly call them \u201csirs\u201d<br>I was happy\u2026<br>My favourite clothing was ripped away<br>We had to portray a white childs way<br>We were forced to our scrawny knees to pray<br>Some of my friends began to turn grey<br>I was happy\u2026<br>I woke up to bad dreams one night in my nightgown<br>It sounded like cries of the lone loon, or being struck down.<br>But I wasn\u2019t allowed to turn the corner, I frowned.<br>I was happy\u2026<br>I tried to find my siblings, they were all hidden<br>I only saw them one more time, I was smitten.<br>I tried to talk to them, but it was forbidden.<br>I was happy\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-930feb06 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>They Were Happy By Sadie Rayne Antoine I am happy\u2026I am singing with my family and favourite peopleThe deer prancing along our homeThe stars glittering across our globeOur stories carved among stoneI am happy\u2026Down the lake I hear two LoonsI hear wolves howling at the moonDangling from leaves are CocoonsI am happy\u2026The fragrance of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[35,32],"class_list":["post-633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literature","tag-indian","tag-poems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jspork.hamiltonlits.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jspork.hamiltonlits.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jspork.hamiltonlits.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jspork.hamiltonlits.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jspork.hamiltonlits.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=633"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jspork.hamiltonlits.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":635,"href":"https:\/\/jspork.hamiltonlits.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633\/revisions\/635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jspork.hamiltonlits.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jspork.hamiltonlits.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jspork.hamiltonlits.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}