Woven Stone

by Ortiz, Simon J.

• ISBN13: 9780816513307
• ISBN10: 0816513309
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1992-11-01
• Publisher: Univ of Arizona Pr

Summary

"What I do as a writer, teacher, and storytelleris to demystify language," says Simon Ortiz. Widely regarded as one of the country's most important Native American poets, Ortiz has led a thirty-year career marked by a fascination with language--and by a love of his people. This omnibus of three previous works offers old and new readers an appreciation of the fruits of his dedication. Going for the Rain(1976) expresses closeness to a specific Native American way of life and its philosophy and is structured in the narrative form of a journey on the road of life. A Good Journey(1977), an evocation of Ortiz's constant awareness of his heritage, draws on the oral tradition of his Pueblo culture. Fight Back: For the Sake of the People, For the Sake of the Land(1980)--revised for this volume--has its origins in his work as a laborer in the uranium industry and is intended as a political observation and statement about that industry's effects on Native American lands and lives. In an introduction written for this volume, Ortiz tells of his boyhood in Acoma Pueblo, his early love for language, his education, and his exposure to the wider world. He traces his development as a writer, recalling his attraction to the Beats and his growing political awareness, especially a consciousness of his and other people's social struggle. "Native American writers must have an individual and communally unified commitment to their art and its relationship to their indigenous culture and people," writes Ortiz. "Through our poetry, prose, and other written works that evoke love, respect, and responsibility, Native Americans may be able to help the United States of America to go beyond survival."

Table of Contents

Introduction	3	(32)
Going for the Rain	35	(114)
Prologue	37	(2)
The Preparation	39	(22)
The Creation, According to Coyote	41	(1)
Forming Child	42	(3)
Four Poems for a Child Son	45	(2)
The Expectant Father	47	(1)
To Insure Survival	48	(1)
Language	49	(3)
Four Bird Songs	52	(2)
Time and Motion and Space	54	(1)
Buck Nez	55	(1)
The Poet	56	(1)
My Father's Song	57	(1)
Two Women	58	(2)
Poem for Jody About Leaving	60	(1)
Leaving	61	(30)
Toward Spider Springs	63	(1)
Arrival in Sudden Seaside Fog This Morning	64	(1)
Blues Song for the Phoenix Bus Depot Derelict	64	(1)
Many Farms Notes	65	(4)
Old Hills	69	(1)
21 August`71 Indian	70	(1)
Small Things Today	71	(1)
Travels in the South	72	(4)
Relocation	76	(1)
Busride Conversation	77	(1)
Portrait of a Poet with a Console TV in Hand	78	(1)
Surprise	79	(1)
Early Morning	79	(1)
Making an Acquaintance	80	(1)
Without You	81	(1)
The Poems I Have Lost	82	(1)
How Close	83	(1)
Last Night	84	(1)
Today, the A-Train, 168th to 14th	85	(1)
Hunger in New York City	85	(2)
Traveled All the Way to New York City	87	(1)
For Those Sisters & Brothers in Gallup	88	(1)
Evening Beach Walk	89	(1)
A Patience Poem for the Child That is Me	90	(1)
Returning	91	(28)
The Wisconsin Horse	93	(2)
A Barroom Fragment	95	(1)
Four Years Ago	95	(1)
Horizons and Rains	96	(1)
Leaving America	97	(1)
Washyuma Motor Hotel	97	(1)
Passing Through Little Rock	98	(1)
Sometimes It's Better to Laugh, ``Honest Injun''	99	(1)
Missing That Indian Name of Roy or Ray	100	(3)
Crossing the Colorado River into Yuma	103	(1)
Valley of the Sun	104	(2)
A Dying Warrior	106	(1)
I Told You I Like Indians	107	(1)
The Significance of a Veteran's Day	108	(1)
To & Fro	109	(1)
Fragment	110	(1)
Notes on the Steps of the San Diego Bus Depot	110	(1)
East of San Diego	111	(1)
Crow	112	(1)
Returned from California	112	(1)
Pain	113	(1)
Wind and Glacier Voices	114	(1)
Albuquerque Back Again: 12/6/74	115	(1)
East of Tucumcari	116	(1)
Watching You	116	(1)
Bend in the River	117	(2)
The Rain Falls	119	(30)
Earth Woman	121	(1)
Spreading Wings on Wind	121	(2)
For Nanao	123	(1)
The Boy and Coyote	124	(1)
My Children, and a Prayer for Us	125	(1)
Four Deetseyamah Poems	126	(3)
My Mother and My Sisters	129	(2)
What Joy Said on Two Occasions	131	(1)
Juanita, Wife of Manuelito	132	(1)
A Pretty Woman	133	(1)
Bony	134	(1)
Two Acoma Pictures	134	(1)
For Rainy's Book	135	(1)
A Deer Dinner	136	(1)
A Snowy Mountain Song	136	(1)
Yuusthiwa	137	(1)
Hawk	138	(1)
Buzzard	138	(2)
Dry Root in a Wash	140	(1)
Curly Mustache, 101-Year-Old Bavajo Man	140	(2)
Four Rains	142	(2)
Morning Star	144	(1)
A Story of How a Wall Stands	145	(1)
For Joy to Leave Upon	146	(1)
It Doesn't End, Of Course	147	(2)
A Good Journey	149	(136)
Preface	151	(4)
Telling	155	(28)
Telling About Coyote	157	(3)
They Come Around, The Wolves---And Coyote and Crow, Too	160	(2)
Hesperus Camp, July 13, Indian 1971	162	(2)
Brothers and Friends	164	(1)
A San Diego Poem: January-February 1973	165	(3)
The Journey Begins	165	(1)
Shuddering	165	(2)
Under L.A. International Airport	167	(1)
Survival This Way	167	(1)
Like myself, the source of these narratives is my home	168	(4)
And another one	172	(2)
How to make a good chili stew	174	(3)
And there is always one more story	177	(6)
Notes For My Child	183	(32)
Grand Canyon Christmas Eve 1969	185	(4)
My Children	189	(1)
Speaking	190	(1)
This Magical Thing	190	(1)
Notes for My Child	191	(5)
Earth & Rain, The Plants & Sun	196	(2)
Pout	198	(1)
Burning River	198	(2)
A Morning Prayer and Advice for a Rainbowdaughter	200	(1)
Canyou de Chelly	201	(2)
Baby Bird Prayers for My Children, Raho and Rainy	203	(2)
Between Albuquerque and Santa Fe	205	(7)
Fingers Talking in the Wind	205	(1)
Like Mississippi	206	(1)
A New Mexico Place Name	207	(2)
Back into the Womb, The Center	209	(3)
A Birthday Kid Poem	212	(3)
How Much He Remembered	215	(18)
Woman, This Indian Woman	217	(2)
Watching Salmon Jump	219	(1)
Some Indians at a Party	219	(1)
Places We Have Been	220	(4)
Vada's in Cuba, New Mexico	220	(1)
Northern Maine	221	(1)
Indianhead Bay	222	(1)
Ithaca, New York	223	(1)
Upstate	223	(1)
How Much Coyote Remembered	224	(1)
Morning by a Lakeside in Marion Country, S.C.	225	(1)
Woman Dreamer: Slender Oak Woman	226	(1)
Apache Love	227	(2)
Her Story About Saving Herself	229	(1)
Two Coyote Ones	230	(3)
Will Come Forth in Tongues and Fury	233	(28)
A Designated National Park	235	(2)
Long House Valley Poem	237	(1)
Blessings	238	(2)
Irish Poets on Saturday and an Indian	240	(1)
Ten O'clock News in the American Midwest	240	(1)
Grants to Gallup, New Mexico	241	(2)
The following words...	243	(1)
``And The Land is Just As Dry''	244	(1)
Vision Shadows	245	(1)
Heyaashi Guutah	246	(1)
Time to Kill in Gallup	247	(4)
For Our Brothers: Blue Jay, Gold Finch, Flicker, Squirrel	251	(3)
``The State's claim...''	254	(7)
Railroads	255	(1)
Electric Lines	256	(1)
Gas Lines	256	(1)
Highways	257	(1)
Phone Company	258	(1)
Cable TV	258	(1)
Right of Way	259	(2)
I Tell You Now	261	(24)
Waking	263	(1)
My Father Singing	264	(1)
This Occurs to Me	265	(1)
Uncle Jose	266	(1)
That Time	267	(1)
When It Was Taking Place	267	(3)
Poems from the Veterans Hospital	270	(11)
8:50 AM Ft. Lyons Vah	270	(1)
Two Old Men	271	(2)
Damn Hard	273	(1)
Cherry Pie	274	(1)
Teeth	275	(1)
Traveling	276	(1)
Superchief	276	(1)
Along the Arkansas River	277	(1)
Looking, Looking	278	(1)
For a Taos Man Heading South	279	(2)
I Tell You Now	281	(4)
Fight Back : For the Sake of the People, For the Sake of the Land	285
Mid-America Prayer	289
Too Many Sacrifices	291
It Was That Indian	295
Indians Sure Came in Handy	296
Starting at the Bottom	297
Ray's Story	299
Affirmative Action	303
Crazy Good Indians	304
Out to Tsaile Lake	304
The First Hard Core	306
To Change in a Good Way	308
Final Solution: Jobs, Leaving	318
Stuff: Chickens and Bombs	320
That's the Place Indians Talk About	321
We Have Been Told Many Things but We Know This to Be True	324
What I Mean	326
Mama's and Daddy's Words	329
Returning It Back, You will Go On	330
This Song: Beating the Heartbeat	332
It will Come; It will Come	334
No More Sacrifices	335
Our Homeland, A National Sacrifice Area	337
A New Story	363