by Joy Harjo
Those years of lung-filling dust in Lahaina 196
Though I did not feel it 156
Thought 125
“Thought is like a cloud 125
tó 332
To a Hummingbird 372
To Allot, or Not to Allot 373
To allot, or not to allot, that is the 373
To Class ’95 374
Today I challenged the nukes 123
Today my brother brought over a piece of the ark 346
To Frighten a Storm 385
Tohe, Laura 306
To Miss Vic 366
Tonawanda Swamps 86
To See Letters 335
To the Pine Tree 21
toughest sheriff in the world, the 343
Translation of Blood Quantum 230
Trask, Haunani-Kay 213
Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek 392
Tremblay, Gail 42
Trespassing 408
Trudell, John 123
Tulledega 372
Turcotte, Mark 136
Typhoni 159
Uluhaimalama 208
Uncle sharpened his harpoon for 227
Universe Sings, The 275
Uuknaa-aa-aanguu-uuq. 185
Vacant folio, middle of an unwritten; 336
Valoyce-Sanchez, Georgiana 276
Variations on an Admonition 243
Vizenor, Gerald 30
Voice 319
Wake chants circle, overhead, like black crows watching her will stumble 74
Walker, William, Jr. (Häh-Shäh-Rêhs) 24
Wall, The 303
Wannassay, Vince 197
Wanting to say things, 281
Warning signs dot edges of woods, rocky coasts and tell us NO 408
Was he a green, long sleeve 258
Wassaja 259
Wasson, Michael 259
Water as a Sense of Place 405
Water Birds Will Alight, The 18
Wazhashk 67
We Are the Spirits of these Bones 117
Weaving 229
Weaving baskets you twine the strands into four parts. 229
We Come from the Stars 135
We have been with these bones for a long time. 117
We have come to the edge of the woods, 131
We have gathered 208
Welch, James 114
We molt. The shell of our past a transparent chanhua. Yes, we will eat it like 71
We need no runners here. Booze is law 114
Wensaut, Kimberly 90
We stand on the edge of wounds, hugging canned meat, 46
Westerman, Gwen Nell 135
Westlake, Wayne Kaumualii 209
West wind, blow from your prairie nest, 26
We wake; we wake the day, 42
We watched from the house 133
We were the land’s before we were. 143
What happens to the ones forgotten 262
what’s an indian woman to do 55
What’s an Indian Woman to Do? 55
When a new world is born, the old 37
whenever two lips begin to form your name 167
When I Was in Las Vegas and Saw a Warhol Painting of Geronimo 95
When My Brother Was an Aztec 349
When Names Escaped Us 73
when popcorn 221
When standing (in rain) for so long, you no longer hear 345
When the moon died 306
When the Moon Died 306
When the moon is turned upwards like a bowl waiting to be filled 81
when we have come this long way 120
when you’ve starved most of your life 128
Where Mountain Lion Lay Down with Deer 294
White, Orlando 335
White Antelope had a song 120
Whiteman, Roberta Hill 46
White Man Wants the Indian’s Home, The 367
who by the time it arrived 340
Wicaŋĥpi Heciya Taŋhaŋ Uŋhipi 135
Wi’-Gi-E 138
Winder, Tanaya 166
Wood, Karenne 81
Woody, Elizabeth 229
Words cannot speak your power. 305
Yaqui Deer Song 273
Yellow roses, wild roses, 286
Yoilo’i, Don Jesús 273
Young Bear, Ray 52
Your absence has left me only fragments of a summer’s run 221
Your portraits are all thin indians 247
Your religion was written on tablets of stone by the iron finger of an angry 183
Zepeda, Ofelia 304
Zhingwaak! Zhingwaak! Ingii-ikid,—Pine! Pine! I said, 21
Zitkála-Šá (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin) 104
PRAISE FOR
WHEN THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD WAS SUBDUED,
OUR SONGS CAME THROUGH
“In another age, these Native poets would have been healers, visionaries, spiritual leaders. This collection proves they are all of these still. Their songs are elixir for our times, a prescription for what ails us as a people, nation, planet. The poets have come to our rescue.”
—Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street
and A House of My Own
“I once thought to read a modest poem at a Native gathering, but retreated because the poetry was so deep, meaningful, and beautiful. And those were just regular Native folks! In this book are to be found the irregulars, the professionals, the masters of words, the singers of oratory and evocation, drawn across time and space. When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through demonstrates, again, that the pains and joys of Indian Country have authored a literature that is world historical in its goodness and intelligence.”
—Philip J. Deloria, Harvard professor of history
and author of Playing Indian
“This anthology is revelatory and stunning. With judicious historical context, source poems in indigenous languages, and outstanding selections of contemporary poems, it shows the remarkable strength and diversity of Native poetry, which vitalizes all of American poetry. It is essential reading.”
—Arthur Sze, National Book Award–winning author of Sight Lines
ALSO BY JOY HARJO
An American Sunrise
Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings
Crazy Brave: A Memoir
Soul Talk, Song Language: Conversations with Joy Harjo
For a Girl Becoming
She Had Some Horses
How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems
A Map to the Next World
The Good Luck Cat
Reinventing the Enemy’s Language:
Contemporary Native Women’s Writing of North America
The Spiral of Memory
The Woman Who Fell from the Sky
Fishing
In Mad Love and War
Secrets from the Center of the World
What Moon Drove Me to This?
The Last Song
Music Albums
Red Dreams: A Trail Beyond Tears
Winding Through the Milky Way
She Had Some Horses
Native Joy for Real
Letter from the End of the Twentieth Century
Plays
We Were There When Jazz Was Invented
Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light
ALSO BY LEANNE HOWE
Savage Conversations
Famine Pots: The Choctaw Irish Gift Exchange 1847–Present
Singing Still: A Libretto for the 1847 Choctaw Gift
to the Irish for Famine Relief
Choctalking on Other Realities
Seeing Red—Hollywood’s Pixeled Skins:
American Indians and Film
(editor, with Harvey Markowitz and Denise Cummings)
Miko Kings: An Indian Baseball Story
Evidence of Red
Shell Shaker
Plays
Big PowWow (with Roxy Gordon)
Indian Radio Days (with Roxy Gordon)
ALSO BY JENNIFER ELISE FOERSTE
R
Leaving Tulsa
Bright Raft in the Afterweather
Contributing Editors
Kimberly M. Blaeser • Northeast and Midwest
Heid E. Erdrich • Plains and Mountains
Cedar Sigo, Diane E. Benson, and Brandy Nālani McDougall •
Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and Pacific Islands
Deborah A. Miranda • Southwest and West
Jennifer Elise Foerster • Southeast
Regional Advisors
Gordon Henry Jr. and Roberta Hill • Northeast and Midwest
Tiffany Midge, Layli Long Soldier, and Tanaya Winder •
Plains and Mountains
dg nanouk okpik • Pacific Islands, Pacific Northwest, and Alaska
Tacey M. Atsitty and Sherwin Bitsui • Southwest and West
Santee Frazier • Southeast
Managing Editors
Jeremy Reed and Allison Davis
Editorial Assistant
James Matthew Kliewer
Assistant Editors
Ben DeHaven • Chloe Hanson • Tori Lane • Lucas Nossaman
Sean Purio • Shane Stricker • Stephanie Walls • Lance Dyzak
Jeffrey Amos • Faith Boyte • Emily Bradley • Emily Jalloul
Bre Lillie
Copyright © 2020 by Joy Harjo
All rights reserved
First Edition
For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact
W. W. Norton Special Sales at [email protected] or 800-233-4830
Book design by Judith Stagnitto Abbate / Abbate Design
Production manager: Lauren Abbate
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Names: Harjo, Joy, editor. | Howe, LeAnne, editor. | Foerster, Jennifer Elise, editor.
Title: When the light of the world was subdued, our songs came through : a Norton anthology of Native nations poetry / editors, Joy Harjo, LeAnne Howe, Jennifer Elise Foerster.
Description: First edition. | New York, N. Y. : W. W. Norton & Company, 2020.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020019323 | ISBN 9780393356809 (paperback) |
ISBN 9780393356816 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: American poetry—Indian authors. | Indians of North America—
Poetry.
Classification: LCC PS591.I55 W47 2020 | DDC 811.008/897—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020019323
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www.wwnorton.com
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