Native Poetry
in Canada
A Contemporary
Anthology
edited byjeannette C. Armstrong
& Lally Grauer
broadview press
Contents
Four Decades: An Anthology of Canadian Native Poetry from i960 to
2000, Jeannette C. Armstrong [xv]
Tuning Up, Tuning In, Lally Grauer [xxi]
A Note on the Text [xxix]
CHIEF DAN GEORGE 1
A Lament for Confederation [2]
Words to a Grandchild [3]
If the legends fall silent [7]
Keep a few embers from the fire [9]
My people's memory reaches [9]
To a Native Teenager [9]
I have known you [nj
RITA JOE 13
I am the Indian [14]
Your buildings [14]
Wen net ki'l/Who are you? [15]
When I was small [15]
Expect nothing else from me [16]
She spoke of paradise [17]
I Lost My Talk [17]
Demasduit [18]
The King and Queen Pass by on Train [18]
Indian Talk [19]
Migration Indian [19]
The Legend of Glooscap's Door [20]
Sune'wit at Kelly's Mountain [21]
A Course of Study in School [22]
Fishing and Treaty Rights [22]
PETER BLUE CLOUD / ARIONWENRATE 24
Alcatraz [25]
When's the Last Boat to Alcatraz? [26]
Ochre Iron [28]
Bear [30]
Dawn [32]
Crazy Horse Monument [33]
Yellowjacket [34]
Sweet Corn [35I
Sandhills That None May Visit [36]
Crow's Flight [38]
Searching for Eagles [38]
Old Friends [39]
DUKEREDBIRD 41
The Beaver [42]
The small d r u m [43]
My moccasins [44]
Tobacco Burns [44]
The Ballad of Norval Morriseau [45]
BETH BRANT 47
Her Name Is Helen [48]
Telling [51]
Honour Song [56]
Stillborn Night [58]
MARIE ANNHARTE BAKER 63
Granny Going [64]
Penumbra [64]
Moon Bear [65]
Bird Clan Mother [65]
Pretty Tough Skin Woman [67]
Trapper Mother [68]
Boobstretch [68]
Raced Out to Write This Up [69]
His Kitchen [70]
Coyote Columbus Cafe [71]
Tongue in Cheek, if not Tongue in Check [76]
Coyote Trail [77]
Bear Piss Water [78]
I Want to Dance Wild Indian Black Face [79]
SARAIN STUMP 80
And there is my people sleeping [81]
It's with terror, sometimes [81]
Little traces in my mind [81]
I was mixing stars and sand [82]
He goes away [82]
Seven men on the rock upon the house [82]
Like little hands [83]
Round Dance [83]
WAYNE KEON 84
Heritage [85]
nite [86]
an opun letr tu bill bissett [86]
a kind of majik [87]
the eye of the raven [87]
moosonee in august [88]
Kirkland Lake, Sept. 21 [89]
eight miles from Esten Lake [90]
in this village [90]
for donald marshall [91]
smoke nd thyme [92]
i'm not in charge of this ritual [93]
if i ever heard [94]
Spirit Warrior Raven: Dream Winter [95]
the apocalypse will begin [96]
replanting the heritage tree [97]
GORDON WILLIAMS 98
The Last Crackle [98]
Lost Children [99]
Dark Corners [100]
The Day Runs [101]
Ernie [101]
Creased Clinic [102]
Justice in Williams Lake [104]
JEANNETTE C. ARMSTRONG 106
In-Tee-Teigh (King Salmon) [107]
Death M u m m e r [108]
Wind Woman [109]
History Lesson [no]
Dark Forests [112]
Green [113]
Rocks [114]
World Renewal Song [116]
Reclaiming Earth [117]
Apples [119]
Right It [no]
BETH CUTHAND 121
Zen Indian [122]
Seven Songs for Uncle Louis [123]
Were You There [131]
Post-Oka Kinda Woman [132]
For All the Settlers Who Secretly Sing [133]
This Red Moon [134]
LENORE KEESHIG-TOBIAS 137
(a found poem) [138]
At Sunrise [140]
New Image [141]
He Fights [145]
In Katherine's House [147]
EMMA LaROCQUE 149
Incongruence [150]
Commitment [150]
The Beggar [151]
Nostalgia [152]
The Red In Winter [152]
"Progress" [152]
The Uniform of the Dispossessed [153]
My Hometown Northern Canada South Africa [154]
Long Way From Home [159]
RASUNAH MARSDEN 164
Father [165]
Condolences for Marius [165]
Three Objects [166]
Kinanti: A Fragment [167]
Valley of the Believers [167]
Wordmaker [168]
Dancing the Rounds [169]
On Your Passage [170]
Tossing Around [171]
Yellow Leaves [172]
SKYROS BRUCE /MAHARA ALLBRETT 173
when the outside is completely dark [174]
eels [174]
in a letter from my brother, atlantis [175]
in/dian [175]
the mountains are real [176]
in memory of fred quilt [177]
her husband is a film maker [178]
For Menlo [178]
Linda Louise [178]
in the bath [179]
Father [180]
LEE MARACLE 181
My Box of Letters [182]
War [183]
Performing [184]
Women [185]
Mister Mandela [186]
Leonard [187]
Razzleberries [188]
Autumn Rose [188]
Ta'ah [189]
Light [191]
GEORGE KENNY 193
Rubbie at Central Park [194]
PoorJ.W. [195]
How He Served [195]
Death Bird [196]
I Don't Know This October Stranger [197]
DUNCAN MERCREDI 199
my red face hurts [200]
Morning Awakening [201]
Blues Singer [202]
Betty [203]
back roads [204]
He Likes to Dance [204]
something you said [205]
born again indian [206]
searching for visions [207]
searching for visions II [208]
dreaming about the end of the world [208]
racing across the land [209]
yesterday's song [209]
the duke of Windsor [210]
DANIEL DAVID MOSES 211
Song in the Light of Dawn [212]
A Song of Early Summer [213]
October [214]
The Sunbather's Fear of the Moon [215]
Twinkle [216]
Ballad from a Burned-Out House [217]
Of Course the Sky Does not Close [217]
Crow Out Early [219]
The Persistence of Songs [219]
The Letter [220]
The Line [221]
Offhand Song [222]
Could Raven Have White Feathers? [223]
Cowboy Pictures [224]
JOAN CRATE 227
The Poetry Reading [228]
Can you hear me? [229]
Gleichen [230]
Story teller [230]
I am a Prophet [231]
Beaver Woman [233]
Empty Seas [235]
Departures [236]
Sentences: at the Culls' [236]
She is crying in a corner [237]
Unmarked Grave [238]
LOUISE HALFE 239
Pahkahkos [240]
Nohkom, Medicine Bear [242]
She Told Me [243]
Ukrainian Hour [244]
Eatin' Critters [245]
Picking Leftovers [245]
I'm So Sorry [246]
In Da Name of DaFadder [247]
Der Poop [248]
These are the Body's Gifts [249]
from Blue Marrow [249]
MARILYN DUMONT 255
The White Judges [256]
Helen Betty Osborne [258]
Blue Ribbon Children [259]
Let the Ponies Out [259]
Horse-Fly Blue [260]
Letter to Sir John A. Macdonald [261]
Circle the Wagons [262]
Leather and Naughahyde [262]
It Crosses My Mind [263]
Instructions to My Mother [264]
The Sky Is Promising [265]
ARMAND GARNET RUFFO 267
Poem for Duncan Campbell Scott [268]
Some [269]
Poetry [270]
Surely Not Warriors [271]
Grey Owl, 1935 [271]
Mirror [274]
I Heard Them, I Was There [274]
At Geronimo's Grave [276]
No Man's Land [277]
Bear [278]
Fish Tale [279]
Rockin' Chair Lady [280]
JOANNE ARNOTT 282
Wiles of Girlhood [283]
The Shard [285]
In My Dance Class [286]
Manitoba Pastoral [287]
Proud Belly [288]
Song About [290]
My Grass Cradle [291]
Like An Indian: Struggling With Ogres [292]
Migration [294]
Protection [296]
MidLife [296]
Beachhead Dreaming [297]
CONNIE FIFE 299
Ronnie, because they never told you why [300]
Communications class [302]
the revolution of not vanishing [303]
This is not a metaphor [304]
Stones memory [305]
We remember [306]
i have become so many mountains [306]
dear wait [307]
the naming [308]
JOSEPH DANDURAND 311
This was One of Them [312]
I Touched the Coyote's Tongue [313]
Someone [314]
Fort Langley [314]
One year [315]
Before me [316]
Feeding the hungry [318]
KATERI AKIWENZIE-DAMM 320
stray bullets (oka re/vision) [321]
my grandmothers [322]
poem without end #3 [323]
my secret tongue and ears [324]
from turtle island to aotearoa [326]
partridge song [329]
frozen breath and knife blades [330]
hummingbirds [331]
night falling woman [331]
GREGORY SCOFIELD 333
What a Way to Go [334]
God of the Fiddle Players [335]
Cycle (of the black lizard) [335]
Unhinged [337]
Pawacakinasis-pisim, December • The Frost Exploding Moon [338]
Peyak-Nikamowin • One Song [339]
T. For [341]
Not All Halfbreed Mothers [343]
True North, Blue Compass Heart [344]
I've Been Told [346]
RANDY LUNDY 348
my lodge [349]
ritual [349]
ghost dance [350]
an answer to why [351]
a reed of red willow [351]
Ayiki-pisim/the Frog Moon (April) [352]
Pawacakinasisi-pisim / The Frost-Exploding Moon (December) [352]
stone gathering [352]
deer-sleep [353]
Acknowledgements [355]