It was a private conversation
when my Dad was giving praise.

Softly dancing words
under bushy eyebrows and glinting grey eyes,
almost a smile, head angled slightly,

he just barely leaned forward
                                          to the lucky one.

I’ve seen the smiles back to him,
star-struck and grateful.

I have forgotten the words,
but I know the feeling.

When he taught me how to carry scissors safely
at three years old. When I mastered
my mother’s bicycle at five.

What were his words that thrilled my whole
little self
with affirmation, the year before I started
Kindergarten?

They are hidden in the deep of my childhood mind.

But, I still can hear
the gentle dance of his voice.

You talk to people so nicely.
My husband was pleased hearing me
compliment a waitress’s work.

It is an easy grace.

I learned to do that at the best place on earth—
in the warmth of my father’s praise.

 

Tina Harrach Denetclaw’s poetry has appeared in Eclectica Magazine, Silver Birch Press | Poetry and Prose…from Prompts Series, The RavensPerch, Leading the Way: The Wisdom of the Navajo People, and Synkroniciti. Her debut chapbook, “Life Travels,” will be released in March 2026 from Finishing Line Press.