When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through

by Joy Harjo

Trevino Brings Plenty, “Ghost River” and “Blizzard, South Dakota” from Wakpa Wanagi Ghost River (The Backwaters Press, 2015). Copyright © 2015 by Trevino Brings Plenty. Reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Julian Talamantez Brolaski, “Stonewall to Standing Rock” from Poets.org (2016), and New Poets of Native Nations, edited by Heid Erdrich (Graywolf Press, 2018). Copyright © 2016 by Julian Talamantez Brolaski. Reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Marianne Aweagon Broyles, “Trespassing” from The Red Window. Copyright © 2008 by Marianne Broyles. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC, on behalf of West End Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico, westendpress.org.

  Diane Burns, “Big Fun” from Riding the One Eyed Ford (Bowling Green, New York: Contact II Publications, 1981) and “Sure You Can Ask Me a Personal Question” (1989). Both reprinted with the permission of the Literary Estate of Diane Burns.

  Heather Cahoon, “Blonde” from Elk Thirst (University of Montana, 2005). Copyright © 2005 by Heather Cahoon. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  Gladys Cardiff, “To Frighten a Storm” and “Combing” from To Frighten a Storm (Copper Canyon Press, 1976). Copyright © 1976 by Gladys Cardiff. Reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Abigail Chabitnoy, “Anatomy of a Wave.” Copyright © 2018 by Abigail Chabitnoy. Reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Victor Charlo, “Frog Creek Circle” from Put Še, Good Enough Put Še, Good Enough, (Kalispell, MT: Many Voices Press, Flathead Valley Community College, 2008). Copyright © 2008 by Victor Charlo. Reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Chrystos (Christina Smith), “The Real Indian Leans Against” from Fugitive Colors (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 1995). Copyright © 1995 by Chrystos. “Ceremony for Completing a Poetry Reading” from Not Vanishing (PressGang Publishers, 1988). Copyright © 1988 by Chrystos. Both used by permission of the author.

  Donovan Kūhiō Colleps, “Kissing the Opelu” from Poetry (July/August 2016). Copyright © 2016 by Donovan Kūhiō Colleps. Reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, “At Dawn, Sitting at My Father’s House” from Seek the House of Relatives (Blue Cloud Quarterly Press, 1983). Reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Laura Da’, “Nationhood” from Instruments of True Measure. Copyright © 2018 by Laura Da’. “Measuring the Distance to Oklahoma” from Tributaries. Copyright © 2018 by Laura Da’. Both reprinted by permission of The University of Arizona Press.

  Nora Marks Dauenhauer, “In Memory of Jeff David” from Life Woven with Song (University of Arizona Press, 2000). Originally appeared in Wicazo Sa Review: A Journal of Indian Studies (Cheney, WA), special issue on poetry from AK, vol. 5, no. 1 (Spring 1989) and “How to make good baked salmon from the river” from The Droning Shaman (Black Currant Press, 1989). Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Nora Marks Dauenhauer. “Letter to Nanao Sakaki” from Life Woven with Song. Copyright © 2000 by Nora Marks Dauenhauer. Reprinted by permission of The University of Arizona Press.

  Natalie Diaz, “When My brother Was an Aztec” from When My Brother Was an Aztec. Copyright © 2012 by Natalie Diaz. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC, on behalf of Copper Canyon Press, coppercanyonpress.org. “It Was the Animals” from Postcolonial Love Poem. Originally published in Poetry (March 2014). Copyright © 2014, 2020 by Natalie Diaz. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC, on behalf of Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota, graywolfpress.org.

  Ed Edmo, “Indian Education Blues” from These Few Words of Mine (Blue Cloud Quarterly, 1985). Copyright © 1985 by Ed Edmo. Reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Eleazar, “Eleazar’s Elegy for Thomas Thacher” from Lisa Brown, Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War. Copyright © 2018 by Lisa Brooks. Reprinted by permission of Yale University Press.

  Anita Endrezze, “The Wall” from Enigma. Copyright © 2019 by Anita Endrezze. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC, on behalf of Press 53, press53.com.

  Heid E. Erdrich, “Pre-Occupied” from Curator of Ephemera at the Museum of Archaic Media. Copyright © 2017 by Heid E. Erdrich. “The Theft Outright” from National Monuments. Copyright © 2008 by Heid E. Erdrich. Both reprinted with the permission of Michigan State University Press. “Offering: First Rice” from The Mother’s Tongue. Copyright © 2005 by Heid E. Erdrich. Reprinted with the permission of Salt Publishing, Ltd., via PLSClear.

  Louise Erdrich, “Jacklight,” “I Was Sleeping Where the Black Oaks Move,” and “Advice to Myself” from Original Fire: Selected and New Poems. Copyright © 2003 by Louise Erdrich. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

  Jennifer Elise Foerster, “Relic” and “Leaving Tulsa” from Leaving Tulsa. Copyright © 2012 by Jennifer Foerster. Reprinted by permission of The University of Arizona Press.

  Santee Frazier, “Sun Perch” from Aurum. Copyright © 2019 by Santee Frazier. “The Carnival” from Dark Thirty. Copyright © 2009 by Santee Frazier. Both reprinted by permission of The University of Arizona Press.

  Eric Gansworth, “Eel” from Apple: Skin to the Core. Originally published in Poetry (2018). Copyright © 2018 by Eric Gansworth. Reprinted with the permission of Levine Querido.

  Phillip William George, “Battle Won Is Lost” from The Whispering Wind, edited by Terry Allen. Copyright © 1972 by The Institute of American Indian Arts. Used by permission of Doubleday, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

  Janice Gould, “Earthquake Weather” from Earthquake Weather. Copyright © 1996 by Janice Gould. Reprinted by permission of The University of Arizona Press.

  Linda LeGarde Grover, “Everything You Need to Know in Life You’ll Learn in Boarding School” from The.Indian.At.Indian.School (Little Rock: Sequoyah Research Center, 2008). Copyright © 2008 by Linda LeGarde Grover. Reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Dana Naone Hall, “Hawai'i ’89” from Ho’omanoa; An Anthology of Contemporary Hawaiian Literature, edited by Joseph Balaz (Honolulu: Ku Pa’a Press, 1989). Reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Joy Harjo, “Running” from An American Sunrise. Originally in The New Yorker (July 9, 2018). Copyright © 2018, 2019 by Joy Harjo. “She Had Some Horses” from She Had Some Horses. Copyright © 1983 by Joy Harjo. “Rabbit Is Up to Tricks” from Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings. Copyright © 2015 by Joy Harjo. All used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

  Suzan Shown Harjo, “The Song Called ‘White Antelope’s Chant’” from Reinventing the Enemy’s Language, ed. Joy Harjo and Gloria Bird (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998). Reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Gordon Henry Jr., “November Becomes the Sky with Suppers for the Dead” and “When Names Escaped Us” from The Failure of Certain Charms: And Other Disparate Signs of Life. Copyright © 2008 by Henry Gordon, Jr. Reprinted with the permission of Salt Publishing Ltd via PLSClear. “Sleeping in the Rain” from Nothing But the Truth, edited by Purdy and Rupert (Prentice-Hall, 2001). Reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Lance Henson, “Sitting Alone in Tulsa at 3 a.m.” and “Anniversary Poem for Cheyennes Who Died at Sand Creek” from A Cheyenne Sketchbook: Selected Poems 1970–1991 (Greenfield Center, New York: Greenfield Review Press, 1985). Copyright © 1985 by Lance Henson. Reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Roberta Hill, “Dream of Rebirth” and “In the Longhouse, Oneida Museum” from Star Quilt. Copyright © 1984, 2001 by Roberta Hill. “These Rivers Remember” from Cicadas: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 2013 by Roberta Hill. All reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC, on behalf of Holy Cow! Press, holycowpress.org.

  Sy Hoahwah, “Family Tree or Comanches and Cars Don’t Mix” from Velroy and the Madischie Mafia. Copyright © 2009 by Sy Hoahwah. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC
, on behalf of West End Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico, westendpress.org. “Typhoni” from Poetry (June 2018). Copyright © 2018 by Sy Hoahwah. Reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Robert Davis Hoffman, “At the Door of the Native Studies Director” from Soulcatcher (Raven’s Bones Press, 1986). Reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Linda Hogan, “Landing” and “The History of Fire” from Seeing through the Sun. Copyright © 1985 by Linda Hogan. Published by The University of Massachusetts Press. “Blessings” from Dark. Sweet.: New & Selected Poems. Copyright © 1978 by Linda Hogan. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC, on behalf of Coffee House Press.

  John Dominis Holt, “Ka ’Ili Pau” from Hawai’i Review 27. Copyright © by John Dominis Holt. Reprinted with permission.

  Andrew Hope III, “Spirit of Brotherhood” from Raven’s Bones (Sitka, Alaska: Sitka Community Association, 1982). Reprinted with the permission of Ishmael Hope.

  Elizabeth “Sister Goodwin” Hope, “Piksinñaq” from Alaska Quarterly Review 17, no. 3 (Spring/Summer 1999). Copyright © 1999 by Elizabeth “Sister Goodwin” Hope. Reprinted with the permission of Ishmael Hope.

  Ishmael Hope, “Canoe Launching into the Gaslit Sea” from Rock Piles Along the Eddy (Ishmael Hope Publishing, 2017). Reprinted with the permission of the author.

  LeAnne Howe, “Noble Savage Sees a Therapist” and “The List We Make” from Evidence of Red. Copyright © 2005 by LeAnne Howe. Reprinted with the permission of Salt Publishing Ltd. via PLSClear. “Ishki Mother, Upon Leaving the Choctaw Homelands, 1831” from Singing Still: Libretto for the 1847 Choctaw Gift to the Irish for Famine Relief (Chapbook, 2017). Reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Al Hunter, “Prayer Bowl” from Spirit Horses. Copyright © 2002 by Al Hunter. Reprinted with the permission of Kegedonce Press.

  Alex Jacobs, “Indian Machismo or Skin to Skin” from Returning the Gift, edited by Joseph Bruchac. Copyright © 1994 by Joseph Bruchac. Reprinted by permission of The University of Arizona Press.

  Rex Lee Jim, “Saad” from Dúchas Táá Kóó Diné: A Trilingual Poetry Collection in Navajo, Irish, and English (Belfast: An Clochán Press, 1998). Reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Hershman R. John, “A Strong Male Rain” from I Swallow Turquoise for Courage. Copyright © 2007 by Hershman R. John. Reprinted by permission of The University of Arizona Press.

  Moses Jumper Jr., “Simplicity” from Echoes in the Wind: Seminole Indian Poetry of Moses Jumper, Jr. (Hollywood, Florida: Seminole Tribe of Florida, 1990). Reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Imaikalani Kalahele, “Make Rope” from Kalahele: Poetry and Art by Imaikalani Kalahele (Honolulu: Kalamaku Press, 2002). Reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Joan Kane, “Variations on Admonition” from The Cormorant Hunter’s Wife. Copyright © 2012 by University of Alaska Press. Used by permission, www.alaska.edu/uapress. “Nunaqtigiit” from Hyperboreal. Copyright © 2013 by Joan Kane. Reprinted by permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press.

  Frank LaPena, “The Universe Sings” from The Sound of Rattles and Clappers: A Collection of New California Indian Writing, edited by Greg Sarris (The University of Arizona Press, 1994). Reprinted with the permission of the Estate of Frank LaPena.

  Richard Littlebear, “NAMȦHTA’SOOMȦHEVEME We Are the Spirits of these Bones” from Birthright. Copyright © 1997 by Richard Littlebear. Reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Chip Livingston, “A Proposal” from Crow Blue, Crow Black. Copyright © 2012 by Chip Livingston. Reprinted with the permission of NYQ Books.

  Layli Long Soldier, “38” and “Dilate” from Whereas. Copyright © 2017 by Layli Long Soldier. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC, on behalf of Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota, graywolfpress.org.

  Casandra López, “A New Language” from Brother Bullet. Copyright © 2019 by Casandra López. Reprinted by permission of The University of Arizona Press.

  Adrian C. Louis, “Skinology” from Skinology. Copyright © 2018 by Adrian C. Louis. Reprinted with the permission of the Estate of Adrian C. Louis c/o David Pichaske. “This Is the Time of Grasshoppers and All That I See Is Dying” from Bone and Juice. Published 2001 by TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press. All rights reserved.

  Bojan Louis, “If Nothing, the Land” from Currents. Copyright © 2017 by Bojan Louis. Reprinted with the permission of BkMk Press / University of Missouri–Kansas City.

  Lara Mann, “Nanih Waiya Cave” from A Song of Ascents and Descents, Effigies II. Copyright © 2014 by Lara Mann. Reprinted with the permission of Salt Publishing Ltd.

  Shaunna Oteka McCovey, “I Still Eat All of My Meals with a Mussel Shell” from The Smokehouse Boys and New Poems (Sugartown Publishing, 2018). Reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Brandy Nālani McDougall, “He Mele Aloha no ka Niu” from Poetry (July/August 2016). Copyright © 2016 by Brandy Nālani McDougall. “Sonnet (Ka ‘Ōlelo)” from Salt-Wind / Ka Makana Pa’akai (Honolulu: Kuleana ‘Oiwi Press, 2008). Copyright © 2008 by Brandi Nālani McDougall. Both reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Dan Taulapapa McMullin, “The Doors of the Sea” from Coconut Milk. Copyright © 2013 by Dan Taulapapa McMullin. Reprinted by permission of The University of Arizona Press.

  Michael McPherson, “Clouds, Trees & Ocean, North Kauai” from Singing with the Owls (Honolulu: Petronium Press, 1983). Copyright © 1983 by Michael McPherson. Reprinted with the permission of Howard McPherson.

  Tiffany Midge, “Teeth in the Wrong Places” from Guiding the Stars to their Campfire, Driving the Salmon to Their Bed (Seattle: Gazoobi Tales, 2015). Copyright © 2015 by Tiffany Midge. Reprinted with the permission of the author. “Night Caller” from The Woman Who Married a Bear. Copyright © 2016 by Tiffany Midge. Reprinted with the permission of The University of New Mexico Press.

  Dian Million, “The Housing Poem” from Reinventing the Enemy’s Language, edited by Joy Harjo and Gloria Bird (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997). Reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Deborah A. Miranda, “I Am Not a Witness” from Indian Cartography (Greenfield Center, New York: Greenfield Review Press, 1999). Copyright © 1999 by Deborah A. Miranda. “Mesa Verde” from The Zen of La Llorona (Cambridge, England: Salt, 2005). Copyright © 2005 by Deborah A. Miranda. Both reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Emerson Blackhorse Mitchell, “Miracle Hill” from Four (Santa Fe, New Mexico: IAIA, 1965). Copyright © 1965 by Blackhorse Mitchell. Reprinted with the permission of the author.

  N. Scott Momaday, “Prayer for Words,” “Angle of Geese,” “The Gourd Dancer” and “The Delight Song of Tsoai-Talee” from Again the Far Morning: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 2011 by N. Scott Momaday. Reprinted by permission of The University of New Mexico Press.

  Phillip Carroll Morgan, “Anumpa Bok Lukfi Hilha (Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek)” from The Fork-in-the-Road Indian Poetry Store. Copyright © 2006 by Phillip Carroll Morgan. Reprinted with the permission of Salt Publishing Ltd. via PLSClear.

  Joe Dale Tate Nevaquaya, “Poem for Sonya Thunder Bull” from Leaving Holes & Selected New Writings. Copyright © 2011 by Joe Nevaquaya. Reprinted with the permission of Mongrel Empire Press.

  Duane Niatum, “Chief Leschi of the Nisqually,” “Center Moon’s Little Brother,” and “The Art of Clay” from Drawings of the Song Animals: New & Selected Poems. Copyright © 1973, 1988 by Duane Niatum. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC, on behalf of Holy Cow! Press, holycowpress.org.

  Linda Noel, “Lesson in Fire” from The Dirt Is Red Here: Art and Poetry from Native California, edited by Margaret Dubin (Berkeley, California: Heyday Books, 2002). Reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Jim Northrup, “Shrinking Away” and “Rez Car” from Walking the Rez Road (Stillwater, Minn.: Voyageur Press, 1994). Copyright © 1994 by Jim Northrup. Reprinted with the
permission of Pat Northrup.

  nila northSun, “99 things to do before you die” and “cooking class” from A Snake in Her Mouth: Poems 1974–1996. Copyright © 1997 by nila northSun. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC, on behalf of West End Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico, westendpress.org.

  Carrie Ayaġaduk Ojanen, “Fifth Saint, Sixth & Seventh” from https://asusjournal.org/issue-3/carrie-ojanen-poetry and Roughly for the North. Copyright © 2018 by University of Alaska Press. Reprinted with permission of University of Alaska Press, alaska.edu/uapress.

  dg nanouk okpik, “The Fate of Inupiaq-like Kingfisher” and “No Fishing on the Point” from Corpse Whale. Copyright © 2012 by dg nanouk okpik. Reprinted by permission of The University of Arizona Press.

  Louis Little Coon Oliver, “Mind over Matter” and “Medicare” from Chasers of the Sun. Copyright © 1990 by Louis Little Coon Oliver. Louis Little Coon Oliver, “The Sharp-Breasted Snake” from Caught in a Willow Net. Copyright © 1990 by Louis Little Coon Oliver. All reprinted with the permission of Greenfield Review Press.

  Simon Ortiz, “My Father’s Song” from A Good Journey (The University of Arizona Press, 1984). Copyright © 1984 by Simon Ortiz. “Indian Guys at the Bar” from The Next World: Poems by 32 Third World Americans, edited by Joseph Bruchac (The Crossing Press, 1978). Excerpts from from Sand Creek (The University of Arizona Press, 1991). Copyright © 1991 by Simon Ortiz. All reprinted with the permission of the author.

  Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, “Kumulipo.” Copyright © by Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio. Reprinted with the permission of the author.