Seasonal Woman: Luci Tapahonso

Tooth of Time, 1982. 4th Printing. Soft cover. Very Good. Gorman, R.C.. Book is clean with a square, tight binding. Book has minor wear on the edges that is difficult to see in the scans, including some fading to spine area. INTRODUCTION Luci Tapahonso's poetry is both powerful and extraordinarily gentle. At the heart of her best work is an abiding love for commonplace ecstasies, and for the humour that shines through our most mundane and aggravating vicissitudes. What a relief to welcome the sympathy and control of this modern poet! No doubt Luci would be content in life simply to be... well. content--hanging out the laundry on windy days, daydreaming while sheep graze, or nuzzling a newborn infant. Yet her Navajo culture has suffered years of economic, political, and social outrages, which still exist: hence always, beneath the tender images of her life, prowl all the dark monsters of a confused and a racist society. Occasionally, these monsters surface in her clean, unfancy lines with a force that is startling. When Luci's humane voice calls attention to the unbearable atrocities that have long dogged the lives of America's native peoples, the impact is tremendous, beause her experience of oppression is so straightforward and intimate. Yet on the whole, her vision is one of profound trust in the unheroic qualities of ordinary experience. She has so much hope for, and belief in, everything and everybody. And all these poems are guided by a deep yearning for an uncomplicated society where all the players respect each other's humanity. Nothing clever or convoluted mars her work. The fundamental power of her poems comes from the fact that they are decent, honest, very compassionate. These tales--both steel-tempered and whimsical--are never bitter. I envy her calm humour when she speaks of brewing black coffee with a real kick, or describes a pregnant woman awaiting her child. The simplicity is disarming, for almost all these poems-such as the one built upon a little girl's observations about litterbugs- can break your heart with their sudden revelations. Suckling babies, brothers carelessly murdered, the helpless love of a Woman for a rambling man, highway honky-tonks, and a wife in love fixing dinner for a loving husband -they all come to us Drawing by R.C. Gorman The book you see in the images is the actual book we have for sale. Why pay more? When you buy this book from us, you are helping to support a small brick and mortar family owned store. We have been curating our collection for three generations and currently have over 250,000 volumes in stock. Please feel free to call for more stock.