From Publishers Weekly
Pape ( Black Branches ) portrays the American Southwest as a study in contrasts. Ravens ride thermals while bombers streak the azure sky with contrails. His quest for the Native American artifacts buried by modern technology is elegiac, often ironic. In one poem the speaker hears the spirit of a long-gone tribe sing the beauty of a river that has become "an open sewer" and celebrates the image of a human hand outlined with ochre paint on a canyon wall. Pape's poems are crowded with such discoveries, some ancient--a potsherd bearing the fingerprints of its maker--and some modern--a cherished Navajo rug in the traditional style known as Storm Pattern. In this title poem, the weaver's pleasure in working with her hands is no solace when the government forces her to sell oil- and uranium-rich land. Other poems take us to different locales--a Chinese restaurant in Los Angeles, the Miami River; at their dullest, these are merely diary entries. Pape's most compelling poems are meditations on nature ("A single bird / tries a note, and soon the trees / are full of persuasion") and, like Native American storytelling, are deceptively simple.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
Aphrodite
Birds Of Detroit
The Blood
Blue Bowl
Boquillas
Children Of Sacaton
The Clowns Of Shipolovi
The Days And The Joys
Dinner On The Miami River
Diver
The Dogs Of Chinle
Don't Worry
Flight
Hailstorm On The Plains
Holding The Stone
The Horses Of Santo Domingo
In Line At The Supermarket
Indian Ruins Along Rio De Flag
Knots
Lifecycle
Making A Great Space Small
The Minotaur Next Door
Miserable -
The Morning Horse, Canyon De Chelly
Morning Shadows, Miami Beach
The Night I Left The Earth
No Visible Stars
Photograph Of Richard Hugo
The Potsherd
Signs, Strawberry Crater Wilderness
Sinagua
Small World Of A Pit
Song For My Son
Storm Pattern
Street Music
Swamper
Tai Song
Task
Totem
Totem
Trains: Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Spring, 1983
Turning Things Over, Rock Creek, Montana
Wijiji
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®
Birds Of Detroit
The Blood
Blue Bowl
Boquillas
Children Of Sacaton
The Clowns Of Shipolovi
The Days And The Joys
Dinner On The Miami River
Diver
The Dogs Of Chinle
Don't Worry
Flight
Hailstorm On The Plains
Holding The Stone
The Horses Of Santo Domingo
In Line At The Supermarket
Indian Ruins Along Rio De Flag
Knots
Lifecycle
Making A Great Space Small
The Minotaur Next Door
Miserable -
The Morning Horse, Canyon De Chelly
Morning Shadows, Miami Beach
The Night I Left The Earth
No Visible Stars
Photograph Of Richard Hugo
The Potsherd
Signs, Strawberry Crater Wilderness
Sinagua
Small World Of A Pit
Song For My Son
Storm Pattern
Street Music
Swamper
Tai Song
Task
Totem
Totem
Trains: Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Spring, 1983
Turning Things Over, Rock Creek, Montana
Wijiji
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®
