Book Read Free

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

Page 37

by Joy Harjo


  Harlem, Montana: Just Off the Reservation 114

  Hartshorne, Mary Cornelia 383

  Hawai‘i ’89 210

  HAWAIIANS EAT FISH 209

  Hayoołkáałgo Sisnaajiní nihi neł’iih łeh. 312

  Hear the Dogs Crying 237

  He awoke this morning from a strange dream— 199

  he lived in our basement and sacrificed my parents 349

  He Mele Aloha no ka Niu 238

  Henry, Gordon, Jr. 72

  Henson, Lance 119

  Here, the sentence will be respected. 149

  Here, too, a great gold snake 408

  Here is the wind bending the reeds westward, vii

  He says 276

  He’tohe he’konȯtse nataosee’ešėhae’eševe’ȯhtsemo’tanonėstse. 117

  Hi everyone 245

  High Ground 139

  Hill, Roberta 46

  Hills Brothers Coffee 311

  History 92

  History of Fire, The 390

  Hoahwah, Sy 157

  Hodeeyáádą́ą́ honishłǫ́ 318

  Hoffman, Robert Davis 228

  Hogan, Linda 387

  Holt, John Dominis 189

  Holy Ghost of You, the Space & Thin Air, The 260

  Hope, Andrew, III 212

  Hope, Elizabeth “Sister Goodwin” 221

  Hope, Ishmael 252

  House of five fires, you never raised me. 47

  Housing Poem, The 218

  How do you do? 77

  Howe, LeAnne 394

  How relentless, how impartial 28

  How shall we adorn 108

  How to make good baked salmon from the river 192

  Hunter, Al 80

  I am a citizen of two nations: Shawnee and American. I have one son who 93

  I am a feather on the bright sky. 111

  I am a young man, Fire. You 407

  I Am Not a Witness 315

  I am old, Sippokni sia. 376

  I am standing outside 72

  I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall 232

  I am water, only because you are the ocean. 249

  I camp in the light of the fox, 200

  I climb the black rock mountain 294

  I dance with 192

  I don’t care if you’re married I still love you 79

  I don’t know why I should be writing to you, 378

  I don’t understand this kindergarten 83

  I find an encyclopedia photo, 84

  “If I threw you in the dike,” she says 84

  If Nothing, the Land 343

  If not thousands then millions of hours 343

  I forgot to ask for the name 406

  I found Coyote, Eagle, and Momoy 315

  If the Indian Office is in existence for the best interest of the Indians, why 272

  I have played with the skulls of seals 243

  I heard the Indian agent say, 33

  Images of Salmon and You 221

  I’m looking on the mountain, 362

  I’m mostly water. 163

  I’m so tired of pretending 238

  Inauguration Day 375

  In a world long before this one, there was enough for everyone, 403

  In Chimayo 220

  In death of a man to be truly 19

  Indian Eden. Open tooth. Bone Bruise. This town split in two. 352

  Indian Education Blues 202

  Indian Guys at the Bar 282

  Indian Machismo or Skin to Skin 57

  Indian Office 272

  Indian Requiem, The 270

  Indian Singing in 20th Century America 42

  ’inept’ ipéecwise cilaakt: 260

  In Hā‘ena’s cerulean sky today 207

  Inike—ekatai—waseyaki 53

  In Memory of Jeff David 191

  In the beginning I am 319

  In the Longhouse, Oneida Museum 47

  In the loose sand is thrown 270

  In these rivers, on these lakes 49

  In this place years ago 228

  In wet darkness, I imagine opening 85

  I ride those ridge backs 215

  isdzán / woman haastiń / man 329

  I see him 107

  Ishki, Mother, Upon Leaving the Choctaw Homelands, 1831 396

  I sit in your 202

  I sit quietly 107

  Issa hal-a-li haa- toko Ik-sa illok isha shkee 361

  I stand at the portal and knock, 366

  I stand upon my miracle hill, 285

  I Still Eat All of My Meals with a Mussel Shell 330

  I studied every ride on the midway— 411

  I tend to mistake your ribs for a hand towel, 344

  It had everything and nothing to do 256

  I thought We could be related, Andy and I. We’re both 95

  it is almost fitting 54

  It is certain they land on me the thunderbirds across my existence 18

  It is late, but outside the night is glowing with snow and streetlight, quiet 409

  It is November and the sun has gone south almost 165

  It is now almost daylight, 53

  It is the day of leaving 387

  It’s 24 years old. 41

  It’s best made in dry-fish camp on a beach by a 192

  It’s closing time. Violence is my boyfriend 400

  It’s earthquake weather in California, 301

  It Was the Animals 346

  ivaghulluk ilagaata 185

  I Was Sleeping Where the Black Oaks Move 133

  Jacklight 131

  Jacobs, Alex (Karoniaktahke) 57

  Jim, Rex Lee 317

  John, Hershman R. 326

  Johnson, Emily Pauline (Tekahionwake) 25

  John Whirlwind’s Doublebeat Songs, 1956 52

  Jumper, Moses, Jr. 393

  Ka ‘Ili Pau 189

  Kalahele, Imaikalani 204

  Kalākaua, King David 182

  Kane, Joan 243

  Ka ne huni 273

  Ka ‘Ōlelo 240

  Ka ‘Ōlelo has a lilting rhythm 241

  Karoniaktahke 57

  Kissing the Opelu 249

  Ko‘olauloa 215

  Kumulipo 262

  Kumulipo Wā ‘ekahi 182

  Laguna Ladies Luncheon 280

  Landing 387

  LaPena, Frank 275

  learning to say i love you 166

  Leave the dishes. 134

  Leaving Tulsa 414

  Lee, Lily 364

  Lesson in Fire 293

  Letter, A 378

  Letters from an Island 245

  Letter to Nanao Sakaki 192

  Let us shake 37

  Like poison oak or the Left Eye part in “Waterfalls” 351

  Like the back of your hand, he said to me, 62

  Like the sea urchin leaves, pimpling its shell 241

  Lili‘uokalani, Queen 182

  Lipe, John Gunter 366

  List We Make, The 396

  Literary Day Among the Birds 364

  Littlebear, Richard 117

  Livingston, Chip 407

  Long Soldier, Layli 148

  Long time ago 295

  Long Time Ago 295

  Look at my/her engraved chin 235

  Look at the Redman’s burden 369

  López, Casandra 338

  Louis, Adrian C. 286

  Louis, Bojan 342

  Luis and Salvadore, the two Miwok guides for the 1848 Donner Party 396

  Make Rope 204

  Mammedaty saw to the building of this house. Just 109

  Man from Washington, The 115

  Man Hesitates but Life Urges 105

  Mann, Lara 416

  many of our grandmothers 392

  Many times in my life I have heard the white sages, 383

  Mapping the Land 62

  Marshlands 25

  Mary Rowlandson made it big in the colonial tabloids. Indian captivity 71

  McCovey, Shaunna Oteka 330

  McDougall, Brandy Nāl
ani 238

  McMullin, Dan Taulapapa 222

  McNickle, D’Arcy 105

  McPherson, Michael 207

  Measuring the Distance to Oklahoma 94

  Medicare 381

  Menwi—yakwatoni—beskonewiani. 52

  Mesa Verde 317

  Midge, Tiffany 145

  milky way escapes my mouth, the 167

  Million, Dian 218

  Mind over Matter 379

  Minnie had a house 218

  Miracle Hill 285

  Miranda, Deborah A. 315

  Mitchell, Emerson Blackhorse 285

  Momaday, N. Scott vii, 108

  Montezuma, Carlos 271

  Months afterwards, I see the electrical poles 164

  Morgan, Phillip Carroll 391

  Motion falls apart in silence, tumbling, as wind turns choreographed snow 74

  Mountains so close we are relative. 112

  My aunt gives me 226

  My choice of all choice spots in Indian lands! 372

  My country! ’tis to thee, 104

  My father built a good fire 293

  My Father’s Song 281

  my favorite conversations are with my grandmother while she 166

  My grandfather placed wood 216

  My head is drawing closer to the bar again 282

  My Industrial Work 30

  My mother explains we are not legless 84

  My mother is a fire beneath stone. 390

  My Mother Returns to Calaboz 321

  My mother used to say, “Bury me with a band,” 305

  My old grandmother, Tekapay’cha 379

  Mythology 216

  My uncle is a small man. 311

  My uncle’s eyes have long since fallen from the grasp of stars. Now, they are 75

  My words are always 338

  NAMȦHTA’SOOMȦHEVEME 117

  Nanih Waiya Cave 416

  Nationhood 93

  Nature Poem 351

  Ndé’ isdzán [“two of me”] 329

  Nevaquaya, Joe Dale Tate 130

  Never again I, 274

  New Citizen, A 103

  New Language, A 338

  Niatum, Duane 199

  Nibii-Wiiyawan Bawaadanan 67

  Night Caller 147

  Night is a sharkskin drum 214

  Night Is a Sharkskin Drum 214

  Nii’aa nindinendam—Oh I am thinking 22

  99 things to do before you die 126

  Noble Savage Sees a Therapist 395

  NOBLE SAVAGE: She’s too intense for me. 395

  No daylight for two months, an ice chisel slivers 248

  Noel, Linda 292

  No Fishing on the Point 235

  No Parole Today 308

  Northrup, Jim (Chibinesi) 40

  northsun, nila 126

  November Becomes the Sky with Suppers for the Dead 72

  Now, as much as ever, and as always, 252

  Now here, now there; 372

  Now I am a citizen! 103

  Now I harbor fugitive names. 71

  Nunaqtigiit 244

  Ocean Power 305

  October 371

  October is the month that seems 371

  O’er Sequoyah’s lonely grave 363

  Offering: First Rice 143

  Oh, Give Me Back My Bended Bow 24

  Oh, give me back my bended bow, 24

  Ojanen, Carrie Ayaġaduk 253

  O ke au i kahuli wela ka honua 182

  okpik, dg nanouk 233

  Old Man’s Lazy, The 33

  Oliver, Louis Little Coon 379

  Omen, The 109

  On a footbridge 87

  Once, when I came home 90

  Once there were coyotes, cardinals 414

  One Chip of Human Bone 54

  On leaving my children John and Jane 22

  O now you come in rut, 385

  On the Long Island Indian 28

  Ortiz, Simon 281

  Osorio, Jamaica Heolimeleikalani 262

  Our Bird Aegis 53

  Our Blood Remembers 113

  [our] nightmare : no 251

  Pacheco, Steve 92

  Paschen, Elise 137

  Passion, Christy 236

  Perez, Craig Santos 250

  Perez-Wendt, Mahealani 208

  Perkins, Leialoha 196

  Pico, Tommy 351

  Piksinñaq 221

  pi-pokni lawah 391

  Pitchlynn, Peter Perkins 361

  Placed 155

  Plantation Non-Song 196

  Poem for Sonya Thunder Bull 130

  Poem for the háawtnin’ & héwlekipx, A 260

  Poet, The 384

  Posey, Alexander 372

  Potlatch Ducks 227

  Powwow at the End of the World, The 232

  Pratt, Stacy 408

  Prayer Bowl 81

  Prayer for Words vii

  Prayer Song Asking for a Whale 185

  Pre-Occupied 140

  Prodigal Daughter 90

  Proposal, A 407

  Rabbit Is Up to Tricks 403

  Rain Scald 345

  Rattle 37

  Real Bird, Henry 125

  Real Indian Leans Against, The 44

  Red Elk, Lois 113

  Red Man’s America, The 104

  Red Man’s Burden, The 369

  Relic 413

  Rendon, Marcie 55

  Revilla, No‘u 258

  Rexford, Cathy Tagnak 248

  Rez Car 41

  Riding the Earthboy 40 116

  Riggs, Lynn 378

  Right here is where I once suckled babies into Red people 396

  River river river 140

  Ross, Joshua 363

  round dance of day has gone 119

  Running 400

  Saad 318

  St. James Lake 87

  Schoolcraft, Jane Johnston

  (Bamewawage Zhikaquay)

  20

  Seattle, Chief 183

  Sentenced 377

  Sequoyah 363

  Seven thousand feet up 399

  seven woodland crows 31

  Seven Woodland Crows 31

  Sharp-Breasted Snake, The 380

  Shaw, Evalyn Callahan 371

  She Had Some Horses 401

  She had some horses. 401

  Shell shaking in the state of the coin toss and sorrowful walk. 94

  Shrinking Away 40

  Shuck, Kim 405

  Sigo, Cedar 246

  Silko, Leslie Marmon 293

  Simplicity 394

  Sippokni Sia 376

  Sister— 145

  Sitting Alone in Tulsa at 3 a.m. 119

  Sixkiller, Samuel 373

  Skeets, Jake 352

  Skinology 286

  Sleek, 227

  Sleeping in the Rain 74

  Small Secluded Valley, A 247

  Smoker, M. L. 160

  Smoke Screen 258

  Sokoya, I said, looking through 188

  Someone spoke his name, Mammedaty, in which 110

  Sometimes I feel you around me, 201

  Song Called “White Antelope’s Chant,” The 120

  Song for Discharming 60

  Song My Paddle Sings, The 26

  Song of the Choctaw Girl 362

  Sonnet for My Wrist 344

  Spanish captive, Hoahwah, married twin sisters. 157

  Speak English. Forget the language of your 51

  Spirit Moves 201

  Spirit of Brotherhood 212

  Spring days 275

  Stellar nucleosynthesis. 135

  Stevens, James Thomas (Aronhiótas) 86

  Stonewall to Standing Rock 340

  Strong Male Rain, A 326

  Summer of Black Widows, The 231

  Sunlight was something more than that to him. 384

  Sun Perch 409

  Sure You Can Ask Me a Personal Question 77

  Survived the war but 40

  Sweet, Denise 60

  Sweetgrass Is Around Her 63

&nb
sp; Taitano, Lehua M. 245

  TallMountain, Mary 187

  Tamez, Margo 321

  Tapahonso, Luci 309

  Teeth in the Wrong Places 145

  Tekahionwake 25

  The air dances with wet sand off golden dunes. 326

  The boy painted himself white and ran into the darkness. 73

  The city’s neon embers 333

  The cold white moon over houses too close together. Front windows, where 75

  The cowboy and the farmer, in chaps and Sunday clothes, 375

  The day the earth wept, a quiet wind covered the 113

  The earth is salmon-colored here, cracked 317

  The end came easy for most of us. 115

  The enemy misled that missed the island in the fog, 244

  The first harvest of wheat in flatlands 160

  The fragmented jawbones 321

  Theft Outright, The 143

  The grains should be green as river rocks, 143

  The hunters went out with guns 187

  The imprint of birds’ feet 130

  The mind bends over, in the light through a window, down and across 76

  The mollusk inching toward my door, 147

  The Muskogee’s hokpi— 380

  The old woman dreams she is up north, on the reservation. It is autumn. 75

  The one-room adobe skeleton sat on a hill overlooking a field that would not 220

  The pine! The pine! I eager cried, 22

  the pink neon lit window full of plaster of paris 44

  there is always this sense: 213

  There is no other bad than what I say’s bad 343

  There Is No Word for Goodbye 188

  There is this shifting, endless film 105

  There was a ship 223

  The room never moves for her. It is not like snow falling, like leaves falling, 77

  These Rivers Remember 49

  The small tunnel which the rabbit uses for escape and travel, 394

  The spiders appeared suddenly 231

  The sun has broken through. 161

  The sunrise nearly finished 107

  The time is almost here. 185

  The waiting road 397

  The water I used to drink spent time 405

  The way it is now 210

  The weight of ashes 68

  The white man wants the Indian’s home, 368

  The years in the blood keep us naked to the bone. 200

  They have come, they have come, 377

  They said, “You are no longer a lad.” 203

  They sing Onward Christian Soldiers 212

  Think of all the lost words, still unspoken, 240

  Think of all the old words that have succumbed, 242

  38 149

  THIRTY-SECOND PARTS OF A HUMAN BEING 230

  This is a give away poem 45

  This Is How They Were Placed for Us 312

  This is how we look over our shoulders. This is how we smile carefully in 71

  this is the Blue Jean Nation speakin’, bro 57

  This is the deepest part of the world. 159

  This Is the Time of Grasshoppers and All That I See Is Dying 289

  This is to say we continued. As though continuing changed us. 81

  This mountain stands near us: mountaining, 333

  Thompson, Earle 216

 

‹ Prev