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From beyond time,
beyond oak trees and bright clear
water flow,
she was given the work of weaving
the strands
of her body, her pain, her vision
into creation, and the gift of
having created,
to disappear.
After her,
the women and the men weave blankets
into tales of life,
memories of light and ladders,
infinity-eyes, and rain.
After her I sit on my laddered
rain-bearing rug
and mend the tear with string.
—from “Grandmother”
This collection of eighty-seven poems richly reflects the experience of its author, invoking myth and history, tragedy and comedy, narrative and lyric, nightmare and the clear light of day.
Allen works in a great tradition of storytelling and education, delight-making and argument to bring a multitude of people, places, and situations before us. Particularly compelling is the variety of her poetic skills: her rich references, her lyrical flights, and—always—her earnest and compassionate voice.
The poems are arranged in an intuitive fashion reflecting Allen’s passion for storytelling.
A Laguna Pueblo-Sioux-Scots-Lebanese poet, philosopher, scholar, and teacher, Paula Gunn Allen was born in Cubero, New Mexico, in 1939.
She received her doctorate from the University of New Mexico in 1976; her dissertation evolved into a major work of cultural criticism, The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions.
Two volumes of her poetry, Skins and Bones and Life Is a Fatal Disease, were published by West End Press. She completed the manuscript for this book a week before her death on May 29, 2008, in Fort Bragg, California.