Native Voices: Indigenous American Poetry, Craft, and Conversations

As someone who doesn’t really read poetry, this was eye opening. I enjoyed a lot of the works in here. Coming out of it Louise Erdrich was probably my favorite.

Editors CMarie Fuhrman and Dean Rader have put together a stunning collection—it will take me months to absorb it all, but already I can feel a restoration possible only from authentic voices, a healing of sorts moving through me as I read. The poems are at times fierce, at times solemn, celebrating culture, family, nature, life. The essays are every bit as illuminating and I’ll turn to them often for wisdom and humor. This morning I started my day with Adrian C. Louis’ poem, “The Hermit’s Diary.” Here’s the first stanza, “Age has withered my rage. The roiling, molten core of my youth has cooled into dull, cold metal. Nevertheless, sometimes I grab a butter knife & dance around the kitchen, threatening the sluggish Mr. Coffee machine.” And on it goes. This poem will feed me all day.

Native Voices is an essential text for anyone looking to expand their horizons on what it means to be a person. Seriously! Rarely have I seen an anthology so carefully and well put together. The large pool of poets here are both familiar/ well known and not, which makes for a fresh read. I would highly suggest this book to folks who have a long standing awareness of land and the people who have been on it. It is one of the many important collections of our time!