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We Become Poems: Poetry by Indigenous Authors

A list in honor of Joy Harjo, our new U.S. Poet Laureate.

Pima County Public Library

15 items

  • A stunning new volume from the first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States, informed by her tribal history and connection to the land.
    BookNew York : W. W. Norton & Company, [2019] — 811.54 H225a 2019
  • "the scent of burning wood / holds the strongest memory. / Mesquite, cedar, piñon, juniper, . . . / we catch the scent of burning wood; / we are brought home.” Dr. Zepeda is a Tohono O'odham poet and linguist, and her words are simply…
    BookTucson : University of Arizona Press, c2008. — 811.6 Z47w 2008
  • From Booklist: A winner of the 2018 National Poetry Series, Skeets' darkly resonant debut book of poetry indulges readers in the dangerous eroticism experienced by its Dine speaker, for whom desire and violence intermingle at every turn:…
    BookMinneapolis, Minnesota : Milkweed Editions, 2019. — 811.6 Sk23e 2019
  • In each poem, there is music that riffs and sings and sometimes drums, as well as a sense of community and connection: "To understand each/ other is profound beyond human words.// This is what I am singing." (Library Journal, August 2015)
    BookNew York : W. W. Norton & Company, [2015] — 811.54 H225c 2015
  • "I write hungry sentences," Natalie Diaz once explained in an interview, "because they want more and more lyricism and imagery to satisfy them." This debut collection is a fast-paced tour of Mojave life and family narrative: A sister…
    BookPort Townsend, Wash. : Copper Canyon Press, c2012. — 811.6 D5437w 2012
  • Drawing upon Navajo history and enduring tradition, Sherwin Bitsui leads us on a treacherous, otherworldly passage through the American Southwest.
    BookPort Townsend, Washington : Copper Canyon Press, [2019] — 811.6 B5482d 2019
  • Storyteller blends original short stories and poetry influenced by the traditional oral tales that Leslie Marmon Silko heard growing up on the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico with autobiographical passages, folktales, family memories, and…
    BookNew York : Penguin Books, [2012] — Fiction Silko
  • This volume confronts the coercive language of the United States government in its responses, treaties, and apologies to Native American peoples and tribes, and reflects that language in its officiousness and duplicity back on its…
    BookMinneapolis, Minnesota : Graywolf Press, [2017] — 811.6 L853w 2017
  • "I bite my eyes shut between these songs." So begins Flood Song, a concentrated, interweaving, painterly sequence in which Native tradition scrapes against contemporary urban life. Winner of the 2010 American Book Award. (Quote source:…
    BookPort Townsend, Wash. : Copper Canyon Press, c2009. — 811.6 B5482 2009
  • Walking on Earth and Touching the Sky

    Poetry and Prose by Lakota Youth at Red Cloud Indian School

    "This anthology presents profound, expressive, and hauntingly honest voices of Lakota youth on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota." (Horn Book, Fall 2012)
    BookNew York : Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2012. — 810.80897 W1544 2012 CHILD
  • This poem in free verse is addressed to a Native American girl about to go out into the world. The writing is lyrical with a natural rhythm and rich imagery. Harjo talks about the gifts the girl receives from her family at birth and her…
    BookTucson : The University of Arizona Press, 2009. — 811.54 H225f 2009 TEEN