In these poems, the joys and struggles of the everyday are played against the grinding politics of being human. Beginning in a hotel room in the dark of a distant city, we travel through history and follow the memory of the Trail of Tears from the bend in the Tallapoosa River to a place near the Arkansas River. Stomp dance songs, blues, and jazz ballads echo throughout. Lost ancestors are recalled. Resilient songs are born, even as they grieve the loss of their country. In these poems, the joys and struggles of the everyday are played against the grinding politics of being human. Beginning in a hotel room in the dark of a distant city, we travel through history and follow the memory of the Trail of Tears from the bend in the Tallapoosa River to a place near the Arkansas River. Stomp dance songs, blues, and jazz ballads echo throughout. Lost ancestors are recalled. Resilient songs are born, even as they grieve the loss of their country.
Record details
ISBN:9780393248500
ISBN:039324850X
Physical Description:print xvi, 139 pages ; 22 cm
Edition:First edition.
Publisher:New York ; London : W. W. Norton & Company, 2015.
Content descriptions
Formatted Contents Note:
Part One: How It Came to Be -- "I lay my body down..." -- For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet -- "For any spark to make a song..." -- Rabbit Is Up to Tricks -- "Listened to an alto sax player..." -- No -- "Humans were created by mistake..." -- Once the World Was Perfect -- "When I woke up from a forty-year sleep..." -- Cricket Song -- "After years you realize..." -- Entering the Principality of O'ahu by Sky Roads -- "Each human is a complex, contradictory story..." -- We Were There When Jazz Was Invented -- "This is only one of many worlds..." -- Reality Show -- "When I blow my horn..." -- Beautiful Baby, Beautiful Child -- Part Two: The Wanderer -- Talking with the Sun -- " 'One way to look at it,' he told me..." -- Spirit Walking in the Tundra -- "Where we lived, the settlers built their houses..." -- Mother Field -- "Let's not shame our eyes..." -- Walk -- "Midnight is a horn player..." -- Charlie and the Baby -- "When I walk over to join you in the two-step..." -- Had-It-Up-to-Here Round Dance -- " 'Through these doors walk some of the finest...' " -- One Day There Will Be Horses -- "When I returned to my ancestral grounds..." -- Goin' Home -- "Our Mvskoke new year is inherently..." -- The First Day Without a Mother -- Part Three: Visions and Monsters -- Falling, Falling -- "Imagine if we natives went to the cemeteries..." -- In Mystic -- "This is the kitchen table university..." -- Listening to Blues in a Fish Joint, Downtown Denver -- "I would do anything for you, baby..." -- Indian School NIght Song Blues -- "Do not feed the monsters..." -- Suicide Watch -- "We all have helpers..." -- This Morning I Pray for My Enemies -- "Ah, but what about being..." -- Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings -- "The first horn I played..." -- Forever -- "And then I argued with myself..." -- I Am Not Ready to Die Yet -- "Whenever a saxophone begins..." -- Report from the Edge of a Terrible Regime -- "In one house lives the sun..." -- From DFW Airport at Dawn -- "What kept me going was that perfect song..." -- The Last World of Fire and Trash -- Part Four: The World -- You Can Change the Story, My Spirit Said to Me as I Sat Near the Sea -- "Those who could see into the future predicted the storm..." -- Sunrise Healing Song -- "I knew there was no way..." -- It's Raining in Honolulu -- "The day went on as it always had..." -- Praise the Rain -- "Time is a being, like you, like me..." -- Rushing the Pali -- "I thought of all the doors..." -- Surfing Canoes -- "I returned to the city of country swing..." -- Speaking Tree -- "I heard a raven cry the blues..." -- Everybody Has Heartache -- "Everyone comes into the world..." -- For a Girl Becoming -- "I keep thinking of my boyfriend..." -- Fall Song -- "My friend Sarita went visiting..." -- For Keeps -- "I confided in him the longing..." -- Equinox -- "What are you ding there, soul..." -- Sunrise
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