Authors: Luci Tapahonso, Tapahonso
ISBN-13: 9780816513611, ISBN-10: 0816513619
Format: Paperback
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Date Published: January 1993
Edition: (Non-applicable)
In this cycle of poetry and stories, Navajo writer Luci Tapahonso shares memories of her home in Shiprock, New Mexico, and of the places and people there. Through these celebrations of birth, partings, and reunions, this gifted writer displays both her love of the Navajo world and her resonant use of language. Blending memoir and fiction in the storytelling style common to many Indian traditions, Tapahonso's writing shows that life and death are intertwined, and that the Navajo people live with the knowledge that identity is formed by knowing about the people to whom one belongs. The use of both English and Navajo in her work creates an interplay that may also give readers a new way of understanding their connectedness to their own inner lives and to other people. Luci Tapahonso shows how the details of everyday lifewhether the tragedy of losing a loved one or the joy of raising children, or simply drinking coffee with her unclebear evidence of cultural endurance and continuity. Through her work, readers may come to better appreciate the different perceptions that come from women's lives.
Navajo poet and English professor Tapahonso here celebrates the importance of conversation and the spoken word among her people. Driving back and forth between her parents' home in Shiprock, New Mexico, and her current home in Lawrence, Kansas, this gifted writer recalls snatches of family memories and tribal stories through the intermingled forms of poetry, songs, prayers, and anecdotes. Ranging across Navajo history, this collection in English and Navajo is warm and witty. Tapahonso states that for people like herself who live away from their homelands, ``writing is the means for . . . restoring our spirits to the state of hozho , or beauty, which is the basis of Navajo philosophy.'' This book is a clear reflection of that sentiment. Recommended for most collections.-- Lisa A. Mitten, Univ. of Pittsburgh Lib.
Preface: The Kaw River Rushes Westward | ||
Blue Horses Rush In | 1 | |
The Weekend Is Over | 3 | |
Just Past Shiprock | 3 | |
In 1864 | 7 | |
They Were Alone in the Winter | 11 | |
They Are Silent and Quick | 13 | |
It Was a Special Treat | 15 | |
It Has Always Been This Way | 17 | |
Shaa Ako Dahjinileh/Remember the Things They Told Us | 19 | |
Leda and the Cowboy | 21 | |
These Long Drives | 23 | |
Hills Brothers Coffee | 27 | |
One Dog Story | 29 | |
Dit'oodi | 33 | |
It Is a Simple Story | 37 | |
She Says | 39 | |
Raisin Eyes | 41 | |
How She Was Given Her Name | 43 | |
If Shiyazhi Could Speak | 45 | |
Light a Candle | 49 | |
What Danger We Court | 51 | |
The Pacific Dawn | 53 | |
It Is Night in Oklahoma | 55 | |
Outside a Small House | 57 | |
Shuuh Ahdee | 59 | |
A Whispered Chant of Loneliness | 63 | |
Little Pet Stories | 65 | |
The Motion of Songs Rising | 67 | |
Uncle's Journey | 69 | |
The Snakeman | 77 | |
What I Am | 85 |