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

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by Joy Harjo


  Those years of lung-filling dust in Lahaina 196

  Though I did not feel it 156

  Thought 125

  “Thought is like a cloud 125

  tó 332

  To a Hummingbird 372

  To Allot, or Not to Allot 373

  To allot, or not to allot, that is the 373

  To Class ’95 374

  Today I challenged the nukes 123

  Today my brother brought over a piece of the ark 346

  To Frighten a Storm 385

  Tohe, Laura 306

  To Miss Vic 366

  Tonawanda Swamps 86

  To See Letters 335

  To the Pine Tree 21

  toughest sheriff in the world, the 343

  Translation of Blood Quantum 230

  Trask, Haunani-Kay 213

  Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek 392

  Tremblay, Gail 42

  Trespassing 408

  Trudell, John 123

  Tulledega 372

  Turcotte, Mark 136

  Typhoni 159

  Uluhaimalama 208

  Uncle sharpened his harpoon for 227

  Universe Sings, The 275

  Uuknaa-aa-aanguu-uuq. 185

  Vacant folio, middle of an unwritten; 336

  Valoyce-Sanchez, Georgiana 276

  Variations on an Admonition 243

  Vizenor, Gerald 30

  Voice 319

  Wake chants circle, overhead, like black crows watching her will stumble 74

  Walker, William, Jr. (Häh-Shäh-Rêhs) 24

  Wall, The 303

  Wannassay, Vince 197

  Wanting to say things, 281

  Warning signs dot edges of woods, rocky coasts and tell us NO 408

  Was he a green, long sleeve 258

  Wassaja 259

  Wasson, Michael 259

  Water as a Sense of Place 405

  Water Birds Will Alight, The 18

  Wazhashk 67

  We Are the Spirits of these Bones 117

  Weaving 229

  Weaving baskets you twine the strands into four parts. 229

  We Come from the Stars 135

  We have been with these bones for a long time. 117

  We have come to the edge of the woods, 131

  We have gathered 208

  Welch, James 114

  We molt. The shell of our past a transparent chanhua. Yes, we will eat it like 71

  We need no runners here. Booze is law 114

  Wensaut, Kimberly 90

  We stand on the edge of wounds, hugging canned meat, 46

  Westerman, Gwen Nell 135

  Westlake, Wayne Kaumualii 209

  West wind, blow from your prairie nest, 26

  We wake; we wake the day, 42

  We watched from the house 133

  We were the land’s before we were. 143

  What happens to the ones forgotten 262

  what’s an indian woman to do 55

  What’s an Indian Woman to Do? 55

  When a new world is born, the old 37

  whenever two lips begin to form your name 167

  When I Was in Las Vegas and Saw a Warhol Painting of Geronimo 95

  When My Brother Was an Aztec 349

  When Names Escaped Us 73

  when popcorn 221

  When standing (in rain) for so long, you no longer hear 345

  When the moon died 306

  When the Moon Died 306

  When the moon is turned upwards like a bowl waiting to be filled 81

  when we have come this long way 120

  when you’ve starved most of your life 128

  Where Mountain Lion Lay Down with Deer 294

  White, Orlando 335

  White Antelope had a song 120

  Whiteman, Roberta Hill 46

  White Man Wants the Indian’s Home, The 367

  who by the time it arrived 340

  Wicaŋĥpi Heciya Taŋhaŋ Uŋhipi 135

  Wi’-Gi-E 138

  Winder, Tanaya 166

  Wood, Karenne 81

  Woody, Elizabeth 229

  Words cannot speak your power. 305

  Yaqui Deer Song 273

  Yellow roses, wild roses, 286

  Yoilo’i, Don Jesús 273

  Young Bear, Ray 52

  Your absence has left me only fragments of a summer’s run 221

  Your portraits are all thin indians 247

  Your religion was written on tablets of stone by the iron finger of an angry 183

  Zepeda, Ofelia 304

  Zhingwaak! Zhingwaak! Ingii-ikid,—Pine! Pine! I said, 21

  Zitkála-Šá (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin) 104

  PRAISE FOR

  WHEN THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD WAS SUBDUED,

  OUR SONGS CAME THROUGH

  “In another age, these Native poets would have been healers, visionaries, spiritual leaders. This collection proves they are all of these still. Their songs are elixir for our times, a prescription for what ails us as a people, nation, planet. The poets have come to our rescue.”

  —Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street

  and A House of My Own

  “I once thought to read a modest poem at a Native gathering, but retreated because the poetry was so deep, meaningful, and beautiful. And those were just regular Native folks! In this book are to be found the irregulars, the professionals, the masters of words, the singers of oratory and evocation, drawn across time and space. When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through demonstrates, again, that the pains and joys of Indian Country have authored a literature that is world historical in its goodness and intelligence.”

  —Philip J. Deloria, Harvard professor of history

  and author of Playing Indian

  “This anthology is revelatory and stunning. With judicious historical context, source poems in indigenous languages, and outstanding selections of contemporary poems, it shows the remarkable strength and diversity of Native poetry, which vitalizes all of American poetry. It is essential reading.”

  —Arthur Sze, National Book Award–winning author of Sight Lines

  ALSO BY JOY HARJO

  An American Sunrise

  Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings

  Crazy Brave: A Memoir

  Soul Talk, Song Language: Conversations with Joy Harjo

  For a Girl Becoming

  She Had Some Horses

  How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems

  A Map to the Next World

  The Good Luck Cat

  Reinventing the Enemy’s Language:

  Contemporary Native Women’s Writing of North America

  The Spiral of Memory

  The Woman Who Fell from the Sky

  Fishing

  In Mad Love and War

  Secrets from the Center of the World

  What Moon Drove Me to This?

  The Last Song

  Music Albums

  Red Dreams: A Trail Beyond Tears

  Winding Through the Milky Way

  She Had Some Horses

  Native Joy for Real

  Letter from the End of the Twentieth Century

  Plays

  We Were There When Jazz Was Invented

  Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light

  ALSO BY LEANNE HOWE

  Savage Conversations

  Famine Pots: The Choctaw Irish Gift Exchange 1847–Present

  Singing Still: A Libretto for the 1847 Choctaw Gift

  to the Irish for Famine Relief

  Choctalking on Other Realities

  Seeing Red—Hollywood’s Pixeled Skins:

  American Indians and Film

  (editor, with Harvey Markowitz and Denise Cummings)

  Miko Kings: An Indian Baseball Story

  Evidence of Red

  Shell Shaker

  Plays

  Big PowWow (with Roxy Gordon)

  Indian Radio Days (with Roxy Gordon)

  ALSO BY JENNIFER ELISE FOERSTE
R

  Leaving Tulsa

  Bright Raft in the Afterweather

  Contributing Editors

  Kimberly M. Blaeser • Northeast and Midwest

  Heid E. Erdrich • Plains and Mountains

  Cedar Sigo, Diane E. Benson, and Brandy Nālani McDougall •

  Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and Pacific Islands

  Deborah A. Miranda • Southwest and West

  Jennifer Elise Foerster • Southeast

  Regional Advisors

  Gordon Henry Jr. and Roberta Hill • Northeast and Midwest

  Tiffany Midge, Layli Long Soldier, and Tanaya Winder •

  Plains and Mountains

  dg nanouk okpik • Pacific Islands, Pacific Northwest, and Alaska

  Tacey M. Atsitty and Sherwin Bitsui • Southwest and West

  Santee Frazier • Southeast

  Managing Editors

  Jeremy Reed and Allison Davis

  Editorial Assistant

  James Matthew Kliewer

  Assistant Editors

  Ben DeHaven • Chloe Hanson • Tori Lane • Lucas Nossaman

  Sean Purio • Shane Stricker • Stephanie Walls • Lance Dyzak

  Jeffrey Amos • Faith Boyte • Emily Bradley • Emily Jalloul

  Bre Lillie

  Copyright © 2020 by Joy Harjo

  All rights reserved

  First Edition

  For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact

  W. W. Norton Special Sales at [email protected] or 800-233-4830

  Book design by Judith Stagnitto Abbate / Abbate Design

  Production manager: Lauren Abbate

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

  Names: Harjo, Joy, editor. | Howe, LeAnne, editor. | Foerster, Jennifer Elise, editor.

  Title: When the light of the world was subdued, our songs came through : a Norton anthology of Native nations poetry / editors, Joy Harjo, LeAnne Howe, Jennifer Elise Foerster.

  Description: First edition. | New York, N. Y. : W. W. Norton & Company, 2020.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2020019323 | ISBN 9780393356809 (paperback) |

  ISBN 9780393356816 (epub)

  Subjects: LCSH: American poetry—Indian authors. | Indians of North America—

  Poetry.

  Classification: LCC PS591.I55 W47 2020 | DDC 811.008/897—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020019323

  W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110

  www.wwnorton.com

  W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., 15 Carlisle Street, London W1D 3BS

 

 

 


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