Green Movement Poets (Critical Survey of Poetry (Salem)) by

Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Ebsco Publishing
Published: 2012-05-09T16:00:00+00:00

Fire burns the thin shavings quickly

and soon dies down under larger pieces.

The red coals are weak, have to watch

and put smaller pieces on next time.

Get knife and splinter larger into smaller

and feed the coals, being patient.

Will have a late supper tonight;

maybe the clouds will part some by then

and let me see some stars.

A GOOD JOURNEY

The second part of Ortiz’s initial manuscript was published in the following year as A Good Journey, and he describes it as being based on “an awareness of heritage and culture,” with “the poetry in the book styled as a storytelling narrative ranging from a contemporary rendering of older traditional stories to current experience.” As Ortiz says in the preface, he writes so that he may have a “good journey” on his way home, and in a larger context, “Because Indians always tell a story.” Ortiz has explained that he wanted to try to get something of the styles of the stories preserved in the oral tradition into print form, and he uses various devices, including multiple voices, direct address to the reader, quotations in several languages and intertextual commentary to produce some of the effect of oral performance. There are five parts to the journey of the title, beginning with “Telling,” a section containing many versions of traditional stories, epitomized by the poem “And there is always one more story,” whose title is a paradigm for the philosophical position that informs the narrative.

Further sections are titled “Notes for My Child,” which picks up similar thoughts in “Going for the Rain; How Much He Remembered,” which continues the idea of a travel journal; “Will Come Forth in Tongues of Fury,” which focuses on political issues; and “I Tell You Know,” which returns to family, community and the poet’s universal beliefs. The appearance of Coyote in many poems suggests a correspondence of sorts between the legendary figure and aspects of the poet’s own soul/spirit, with an ongoing dialogue between parties evolving through the book. A brief, cryptic poem, “How Much Coyote Remembered,” states, “O, not too much./ And a whole lot./ Enough,” an assertion of the vast span of time that constitutes the history of indigenous people on the North American continent that Ortiz is examining and rehearsing. Ortiz identifies with Coyote as a survivor who finds ways not only to survive, but also to thrive.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.