When the light of the world was subdued, our songs came through : a Norton anthology of Native Nations poetry

Publication/Creation:

New York, N. Y. : W. W. Norton & Company, [2020]

Format:

Book

Edition:

First edition.

More Details

Additional/Related Title Information

Full Title:

When the light of the world was subdued, our songs came through : a Norton anthology of Native Nations poetry / editors, Joy Harjo, Executive Editor, LeAnne Howe, Executive Associate Editor, Jennifer Elise Foerster, Associate Editor

Related/Included Titles:

A blessing by N. Scott Momaday --
Northeast and midwest. Writing a poetry of continuance /
Anishinaabeg dream song --
The water birds will alight --
Eleazar's elegy for Thomas Thacher /
To the pine tree ; On leaving my children John and Jane at school, in the Atlantic states, and preparing to return to the interior /
Oh, give me back my bended bow /
Marshlands ; The song my paddle sings /
On the Long Island Indian /
My industrial work /
Seven woodland crows ; Family photograph ; Fat green flies /
The old man's lazy ; Rattle /
Shrinking away ; Rez car /
Indian singing in 20th century America /
The real Indian leans against ; Ceremony for completing a poetry reading /
Dream of rebirth ; In the longhouse, Oneida Museum ; These rivers remember /
Everything you need to know in life you'll learn in boarding school /
John Whirlwind's doublebeat songs, 1956 ; Our bird aegis ; One chip of human bone /
What's an Indian woman to do? /
Indian machismo or skin to skin /
Song for discharming ; Mapping the land /
Sweetgrass is around her /
Dreams of water bodies ; Apprenticed to justice ; Captivity /
November becomes the sky with suppers for the dead ; When names escaped us ; Sleeping in the rain /
Sure you can ask me a personal question ; Big fun /
Prayer bowl /
Chief Totopotamoi, 1654 ; Hard times /
Eel /
Tonawanda swamps ; St. James Lake /
Prodigal daughter /
History /
Nationhood ; Measuring the distance to Oklahoma /
When I was in Las Vegas and saw a Warhol painting of Geronimo /
Plains and mountains. Placed with our power /
A new citizen /
The Red Man's America /
Man hesitates but life urges /
At dawn, sitting at my father's house /
Angle of geese ; The gourd dancer ; The delight song of Tsoai-Talee /
Frog Creek circle /
Our blood remembers /
Harlem, Montana : just off the reservation ; The man from Washington ; Riding the earthboy 40 /
NAMȦHTÁSOOMȦHEVEME ; We are the spirits of these bones /
Sitting alone in Tulsa at 3 A.M. ; Anniversary poem for Cheyennes who died at Sand Creek /
The song called "White antelope's chant" /
Diablo Canyon /
Thought /
99 things to do before you die ; cooking class /
Poem for Sonya Thunder Bull /
Jacklight ; I was sleeping where the black oaks move ; Advice to myself /
Wicanĥpi Heciya Tanhan Unhipi (We come from the stars) /
Burn ; Battlefield /
Wi'-Gi-E ; High ground /
Pre-occupied ; Offering : first rice ; The theft outright /
Teeth in the wrong places ; Night caller /
38 ; Dilate /
Family tree or Comanches and cars don't mix ; Typhoni /
Crosscurrent ; Casualties /
Ghost River ; Blizzard, South Dakota /
Blonde /
learning to say i love you ; the milky way escapes my mouth /
Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and Pacific Islands. Poetry of the Pacific Northwest : the arc of the edifice /
Poetry of Alaska /
Poetry of the Pacific /
Kumulipo Wāʻekahi --
Excerpts from a speech by Chief Seattle, 1854 /
Prayer song asking for a whale /
Good grease ; There is no word for goodbye /
KaʻIli Pau /
In memory of Jeff David ; Letter to Nanao Sakaki ; How to make good baked salmon from the river /
Plantation non-song /
Forgotten coyote stories /
Chief Leschi of the Nisqually ; Center Moon's little brother ; The art of clay /
Spirit moves /
Indian education blues /
Battle won is lost /
Make rope /
Clouds, trees & ocean, North Kauai /
Uluhaimalama /
Hawaiians eat fish /
Hawaiʻi '89 /
Spirit of brotherhood /
An agony of place ; Night is a sharkskin drum ; Koʻolauloa /
Mythology /
The housing poem /
In chimayo ; Images of salmon and you /
Piksinñaq /
The doors of the sea /
Charlene /
Ax̲ Tl'aa ; Potlatch ducks ; Grief's anguish /
At the door of the native studies director /
Weaving ; Translation of blood quantum /
The summer of black widows ; The powwow at the end of the world /
The fate of Inupiaq-like kingfisher ; No fishing on the point /
Hear the dogs crying /
He mele aloha no ka niu ; Ka ʻOlelo /
Variations on an admonition ; Nunaqtigiit /
Letters from an island /
A small secluded valley ; After self-help /
The ecology of subsistence /
Kissing the opelu /
ginen the micronesian kingfisher (i sibek) /
Canoe launching into the gaslit sea /
Fifth saint, sixth & seventh /
Anatomy of a wave /
Smoke screen /
A poem for the háawtnin' & héwlekipx [The holy ghost of you, the space & thin air] /
Kumulipo /
Southwest and west. "I'm here to make a poem" /
The Indian requiem /
Indian office /
Yaqui deer song /
The universe sings /
The dolphin walking stick /
Laguna ladies luncheon /
My father's song ; Indian guys at the bar ; Selection from From Sand Creek /
Miracle hill /
Skinology ; This is the time of grasshoppers and all that I see is dying /
Lesson in fire /
Where mountain lion lay down with deer ; Long time ago /
Earthquake weather /
The wall /
Bury me wiith a band ; Ocean power /
When the moon died ; No parole today /
Blue horses rush in ; Hills Brothers coffee ; This is how they were placed for us /
I am not a witness ; mesa Verde /
Saad /
My mother returns to Calaboz /
Assignment 44 ; First woman /
A stong male rain /
Ndé'isdzán ["two of me"] /
I still eat all of my meals with a mussel shell /
from Flood song ; from Dissolve ; The caravan /
To see letters ; Empty set /
A new language /
Stonewall to Standing Rock /
If nothing, the land /
Sonnet for my wrist ; Rain scald /
It was the animals ; When my brother was an Aztec /
from Nature poem /
Drunktown /
Southeast. Renewal /
Evening song 93 /
Song fo the Choctaw girl /
Sequoyah, Joshua Ross, Cherokee --
Literary day among the birds /
To Miss Vic /
The white man wants the Indian's home /
The red man's burden /
October /
To a hummingbird ; Tulledega ; To allot, or not to allot /
To class '95 /
Inauguration day /
Sippokni Sia /
Sentenced /
A letter /
Mind over matter ; The sharp-breasted snake ; Medicare /
Fallen leaves ; The poet /
To frighten a storm : Combing /
Landing ; Blessings ; The history of fire /
Anumpa Bok Lukfi Hilha (Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek) /
Simplicity /
Noble savage sees a therapist ; Ishki, mother, upon leaving the Choctaw homelands, 1831 ; The list we make /
Running, She had some horses ; Rabbit is up to tricks /
Water as a sense of place /
A proposal /
Trespassing /
A Creek woman beside Lake Ontario /
Sun perch ; The carnival /
Relic ; Leaving Tulsa /
Nanih Waiya Cave /
Outroduction /
Wicanĥpi Heciya Tanhan Unhipi.

Variant Titles:

Norton anthology of Native Nations poetry

Related Names

Additional Author/Creators:

Harjo, Joy, editor
Howe, LeAnne, editor
Foerster, Jennifer Elise, editor
Westerman, Gwen. Wicanĥpi Heciya Tanhan Unhipi

Subjects/Genre

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

American poetry--Indigenous authors
Indigenous peoples--North America--Poetry

Description/Summary

Table of Contents:

A blessing by N. Scott Momaday -- Introduction / by Joy Harjo -- Northeast and midwest. Writing a poetry of continuance / by Kimberly M. Blaeser -- Anishinaabeg dream song -- The water birds will alight -- Eleazar's elegy for Thomas Thacher / Eleazar, Unknown -- To the pine tree ; On leaving my children John and Jane at school, in the Atlantic states, and preparing to return to the interior / Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) -- Oh, give me back my bended bow / William Walker Jr., Wyandot -- Marshlands ; The song my paddle sings / Emily Pauline Johnson, Mohawk -- On the Long Island Indian / Olivia Ward Bush-Banks, Montaukett -- My industrial work / Anonymous Carlisle Student -- Seven woodland crows ; Family photograph ; Fat green flies / Gerald Vizenor, Anishinaabe-White Earth Nation -- The old man's lazy ; Rattle / Peter Blue Cloud, Mohawk -- Shrinking away ; Rez car / Jim Northrup, Anishinaabe-Fond Du Lac Band of Lake Superior -- Indian singing in 20th century America / Gail Tremblay, Onondaga, Mi'Kmaq -- The real Indian leans against ; Ceremony for completing a poetry reading / Chrystos, Menominee -- Dream of rebirth ; In the longhouse, Oneida Museum ; These rivers remember / Roberta Hill, Oneida -- Everything you need to know in life you'll learn in boarding school / Linda LeGarde Grover, Anishinaabe-Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe -- John Whirlwind's doublebeat songs, 1956 ; Our bird aegis ; One chip of human bone / Ray Young Bear, Meskwaki -- What's an Indian woman to do? / Marcie Rendon, Anishinabbe-White Earth Nation -- Indian machismo or skin to skin / Alex Jacobs, Akwesasne Mohawk -- Song for discharming ; Mapping the land / Denise Sweet, Anishinaabe-White Earth Nation -- Sweetgrass is around her / Salli M. Kawennotakie Benedict, Akwesasne Mohawk -- Dreams of water bodies ; Apprenticed to justice ; Captivity / Kimberly M. Blaeser, Anishinaabe-White Earth Nation -- November becomes the sky with suppers for the dead ; When names escaped us ; Sleeping in the rain / Gordon Henry Jr., Anishinababe-White Earth Nation -- Sure you can ask me a personal question ; Big fun / Diane Burns, Anishinaabe-Lac Courte Oreilles, Chemehuevi -- Prayer bowl / Al Hunter, Anishinaabe, Rainy River First Nations -- Chief Totopotamoi, 1654 ; Hard times / Karenne Wood, Monacan Nation -- Eel / Eric Gansworth, Onondaga -- Tonawanda swamps ; St. James Lake / James Thomas Stevens, Akwesasne Mohawk -- Prodigal daughter / Kimberly Wensaut, Potawatomi -- History / Steve Pacheco, Mdewakanton Dakota -- Nationhood ; Measuring the distance to Oklahoma / Laura Daʼ, Eastern Shawnee -- When I was in Las Vegas and saw a Warhol painting of Geronimo / B: William Bearhart, Anishinaabe-St. Croix
Plains and mountains. Placed with our power / by Heid E. Erdrich -- A new citizen / Elsie Fuller, Omaha -- The Red Man's America / Zitkála-S̆á (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin), Yankton Dakota -- Man hesitates but life urges / D'Arcy McNickle, Métis, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes -- At dawn, sitting at my father's house / Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, Crow Creek Sioux -- Angle of geese ; The gourd dancer ; The delight song of Tsoai-Talee / N. Scott Momaday, Kiowa -- Frog Creek circle / Victor Charlo, Bitterroot Salish, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes -- Our blood remembers / Lois Red Elk, Isanti, Hunkpapa -- Harlem, Montana : just off the reservation ; The man from Washington ; Riding the earthboy 40 / James Welch, Gros Ventre, Blackfeet -- NAMȦHTÁSOOMȦHEVEME ; We are the spirits of these bones / Richard Littlebear, Northern Cheyenne -- Sitting alone in Tulsa at 3 A.M. ; Anniversary poem for Cheyennes who died at Sand Creek / Lance Henson, Southern Cheyenne -- The song called "White antelope's chant" / Suzan Shown Harjo, Southern Cheyenne, Hodulgee Muscogee -- Diablo Canyon / John Trudell, Santee Dakota -- Thought / Henry Real Bird, Crow -- 99 things to do before you die ; cooking class / Nila NorthSun, Shoshone, Anishanaabe -- Poem for Sonya Thunder Bull / Joe Dale Tate Nevaquaya, Yuchi, Comanche -- Jacklight ; I was sleeping where the black oaks move ; Advice to myself / Louise Erdrich, Anishinaabe-Turtle Mountian Band -- Wicanĥpi Heciya Tanhan Unhipi (We come from the stars) / Gwen Nell Westerman, Dakota, Cherokee -- Burn ; Battlefield / Mark Turcotte, Anishinaabe-Turtle Mountain Band -- Wi'-Gi-E ; High ground / Elise Paschen, Osage -- Pre-occupied ; Offering : first rice ; The theft outright / Heid E. Erdrich, Anishinaabe-Turtle Mountain Band -- Teeth in the wrong places ; Night caller / Tiffany Midge, Standing Rock Sioux -- 38 ; Dilate / Layli Long Soldier, Oglala Lakota -- Family tree or Comanches and cars don't mix ; Typhoni / Sy Hoahwah, Yapaituka Comanche, Southern Arapaho -- Crosscurrent ; Casualties / M.L. Smoker, Assiniboine and Sioux -- Ghost River ; Blizzard, South Dakota / Trevino L. Brings Plenty, Minneconjou Lakota -- Blonde / Heather Cahoon, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes -- learning to say i love you ; the milky way escapes my mouth / Tanaya Winder, Duckwater Shoshone, Southern Ute, Pyramid Lake Paiute
Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and Pacific Islands. Poetry of the Pacific Northwest : the arc of the edifice / by Cedar Sigo -- Poetry of Alaska / by Diane Lʼx̲eiś Benson -- Poetry of the Pacific / by Brandy Nālani McDougall -- Kumulipo Wāʻekahi -- Excerpts from a speech by Chief Seattle, 1854 / Chief Seattle, Suquamish, Duwamish -- Prayer song asking for a whale / Lincoln Blassi, St. Lawrence Island Yupʹik -- Good grease ; There is no word for goodbye / Mary TallMountain, Koyukon -- KaʻIli Pau / John Dominis Holt, Kanaka Maoli -- In memory of Jeff David ; Letter to Nanao Sakaki ; How to make good baked salmon from the river / Nora Marks Dauenhauer, Tlingit -- Plantation non-song / Leialoha Perkins, Kanaka Maoli -- Forgotten coyote stories / Vince Wannassay, Umatilla -- Chief Leschi of the Nisqually ; Center Moon's little brother ; The art of clay / Duane Niatum, Lkallum -- Spirit moves / Fred Bigjim, Iñupiaq -- Indian education blues / Ed Edmo, Shoshone-Bannock -- Battle won is lost / Phillip William George, Nez Perce -- Make rope / Imaikalani Kalahele, Kanaka Maoli -- Clouds, trees & ocean, North Kauai / Michael McPherson, Kanaka Maoli -- Uluhaimalama / Mahealani Perez-Wendt, Kanaka Maoli -- Hawaiians eat fish / Wayne Kaumualii Westlake, Kanaka Maoli -- Hawaiʻi '89 / Dana Naone Hall, Kanaka Maoli -- Spirit of brotherhood / Andrew Hope III, Tlingit -- An agony of place ; Night is a sharkskin drum ; Koʻolauloa / Haunani-Kay Trask, Kanaka Maoli -- Mythology / Earle Thompson, Yakima -- The housing poem / Dian Million, Tanana Athabascan -- In chimayo ; Images of salmon and you / Gloria Bird, Spokane -- Piksinñaq / Elizabeth "Sister Goodwin" Hope, Iñupiaq -- The doors of the sea / Dan Taulapapa McMullin, Samoan -- Charlene / Joe Balaz, Kanaka Maoli -- Ax̲ Tl'aa ; Potlatch ducks ; Grief's anguish / Diane L'x̲eis' Benson, Tlingit -- At the door of the native studies director / Robert Davis Hoffman, Tlingit -- Weaving ; Translation of blood quantum / Elizabeth Woody, Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs -- The summer of black widows ; The powwow at the end of the world / Sherman Alexie, Spokane -- The fate of Inupiaq-like kingfisher ; No fishing on the point / DG Nanouk Okpik, Iñupiaq -- Hear the dogs crying / Christy Passion, Kanaka Maoli -- He mele aloha no ka niu ; Ka ʻOlelo / Brandy Nãlani McDougall, Kanaka Maoli -- Variations on an admonition ; Nunaqtigiit / Joan Kane, Iñupiaq -- Letters from an island / Lehua M. Taitano, CHamoru -- A small secluded valley ; After self-help / Cedar Sigo, Suquamish -- The ecology of subsistence / Cathy Tagnak Rexford, Iñupiaq -- Kissing the opelu / Donavan Kūhiō Colleps, Kanaka Maoli -- ginen the micronesian kingfisher (i sibek) / Craig Santos Perez, CHamoru -- Canoe launching into the gaslit sea / Ishmael Hope, Tlingit, Iñupiaq -- Fifth saint, sixth & seventh / Carrie Ayaġaduk Ajanen, Iñupiaq -- Anatomy of a wave / Abigail Chabitnoy, Koniag, Tangirnaq -- Smoke screen / Noʻu Revilla, Kanaka Maoli, Tahitian -- A poem for the háawtnin' & héwlekipx [The holy ghost of you, the space & thin air] / Michael Wasson, Nimíipuu, Nez Perce -- Kumulipo / Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, Kanaka Maoli
Southwest and west. "I'm here to make a poem" / by Deborah A. Miranda -- The Indian requiem / Arsenius Chaleco, Yuma -- Indian office / Carlos Montezuma, Yavapai-Apache -- Yaqui deer song / Don Jesús Yoilo'i, Yaqui -- The universe sings / Frank LaPena, Nomtipom Wintu -- The dolphin walking stick / Georgiana Valoyce-Sanchez, Chumash, Tohono O'Odham, Pima -- Laguna ladies luncheon / Paula Gunn Allen, Laguna -- My father's song ; Indian guys at the bar ; Selection from From Sand Creek / Simon Ortiz, Acoma -- Miracle hill / Emerson BlackHorse Mitchell, Diné -- Skinology ; This is the time of grasshoppers and all that I see is dying / Adrian C. Louis, Lovelock Paiute -- Lesson in fire / Linda Noel, Koyongk'awi Maidu -- Where mountain lion lay down with deer ; Long time ago / Leslie Marmon Silko, Laguna -- Earthquake weather / Janice Gould, Koyongk'awi Maidu -- The wall / Anita Endrezze, Yaqui -- Bury me wiith a band ; Ocean power / Ofelia Zepeda, Tohono O'Odham -- When the moon died ; No parole today / Laura Tohe, Diné -- Blue horses rush in ; Hills Brothers coffee ; This is how they were placed for us / Luci Tapahonso, Diné -- I am not a witness ; mesa Verde / Deborah A. Miranda, Ohlone/Costanoan-Esselen -- Saad / Rex Lee Jim, Diné -- My mother returns to Calaboz / Margo Tamez, Lipan Apache -- Assignment 44 ; First woman / Esther G. Belin, Diné -- A stong male rain / Hershman R. John, Diné -- Ndé'isdzán ["two of me"] / Crisosto Apache, Miscalero Apache, Chricahua Apache, Diné -- I still eat all of my meals with a mussel shell / Shaunna Oteka McCovey, Yurok, Karuk -- from Flood song ; from Dissolve ; The caravan / Sherwin Bitwui, Diné -- To see letters ; Empty set / Orlando White, Diné -- A new language / Casandra López, Cahuilla/Tongva/Luiseño -- Stonewall to Standing Rock / Julian Talamantez Brolaski, Mescalero and Lipan Apache -- If nothing, the land / bojan Louis, Diné -- Sonnet for my wrist ; Rain scald / Tacey M. Atsitty, Diné -- It was the animals ; When my brother was an Aztec / Natalie Diaz, Mojave/Gila River -- from Nature poem / Tommy Pico, Kumeyaay -- Drunktown / Jake Skeets, Diné
Southeast. Renewal / by Jennifer elise Foerster -- Evening song 93 / Choctaw -- Song fo the Choctaw girl / Peter Perkins Pitchlynn, Choctaw -- Sequoyah, Joshua Ross, Cherokee -- Literary day among the birds / Lily Lee, Cherokee -- To Miss Vic / John Gunter Lipe, Cherokee -- The white man wants the Indian's home / James Harris Guy, Chickasaw -- The red man's burden / J.C. Duncan, Cherokee -- October / Evalyn Callahan Shaw, Mvskoke -- To a hummingbird ; Tulledega ; To allot, or not to allot / Alexander Pose, Mvskoke -- To class '95 / Samuel Sixkiller, Cherokee -- Inauguration day / Stella LeFlore Carter, Chickasaw -- Sippokni Sia / Winnie Lewis Gravitt, Choctaw -- Sentenced / Ruth Margaret Muskrat Bronson, Cherokee -- A letter / Lynn Riggs, Cherokee -- Mind over matter ; The sharp-breasted snake ; Medicare / Louis Little Coon Oliver, Mvskoke -- Fallen leaves ; The poet / Mary Cornelia Hartshorne, Choctaw -- To frighten a storm : Combing / Gladys Cardiff, Eastern Band Cherokee -- Landing ; Blessings ; The history of fire / Linda Hogan, Chickasaw -- Anumpa Bok Lukfi Hilha (Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek) / Phillip Carroll Morgan, Choctaw, Chickasaw -- Simplicity / Moses Jumper Jr., Seminole -- Noble savage sees a therapist ; Ishki, mother, upon leaving the Choctaw homelands, 1831 ; The list we make / LeAnne Howe, Choctaw -- Running, She had some horses ; Rabbit is up to tricks / Joy Harjo, Mvskoke -- Water as a sense of place / Kim Shuck, Cherokee -- A proposal / Chip Livingston, Mvskoke -- Trespassing / Marianne Aweagon Broyles, Cherokee -- A Creek woman beside Lake Ontario / Stacy Pratt, Mvskoke -- Sun perch ; The carnival / Santee Frazier, Cherokee -- Relic ; Leaving Tulsa / Jennifer Elise Foerster, Mvskoke -- Nanih Waiya Cave / Lara Mann, Choctaw -- Outroduction / by LeAnne Howe.

Summary:

"United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo gathers the work of more than 160 poets, representing nearly 100 indigenous nations, into the first historically comprehensive Native poetry anthology. This landmark anthology celebrates the indigenous peoples of North America, the first poets of this country, whose literary traditions stretch back centuries. Opening with a blessing from Pulitzer Prize-winner N. Scott Momaday, the book contains powerful introductions from contributing editors who represent the five geographically organized sections. Each section begins with a poem from traditional oral literatures and closes with emerging poets, ranging from Eleazar, a seventeenth-century Native student at Harvard, to Jake Skeets, a young Diné poet born in 1991, and including renowned writers such as Luci Tapahanso, Natalie Diaz, Layli Long Soldier, and Ray Young Bear. When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through offers the extraordinary sweep of Native literature, without which no study of American poetry is complete"--

Language:

English

Physical Type/Description:

xxiii, 458 pages ; 24 cm

General Note:

Includes index.

Additional Identifiers

Catalog ID (MMSID):

9937259615302486

ISBN:

0393356809
9780393356809

OCLC Number:

1152453977

Barcode:

050000092903
010003546007