Light As Light

Poems

Simon J. Ortiz

• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9780816550241
  9780816550258
• eBook ISBN:
  9780816550265
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

Light As Light is acclaimed poet Simon J. Ortiz's first collection in twenty years. The poems in this volume celebrate the wonders and joy of love in the present while also looking back with both humorous and serious reflections on youth and the stories, scenes, people, and places that shape a person's life. Light As Light brims with giddy, wistful long-distance love poems that offer a dialogue between the speaker and his beloved. Written in Ortiz's signature conversational style, this volume claims poetry for everyday life as the poems find the speaker on a morning run, burnt out from academic responsibilities, missing his beloved, reflecting on sobriety, walking the dog, and pondering the act of poem making. The collection also includes prayer poems written for the speaker's son; poems that retell traditional Acoma stories and history; and poems that engage environmental, political, and social justice issues—making for a well-rounded collection that blends the playful and the profound.

The poems in Light As Light travel far across both space and memory, landing everywhere from the New Mexico of the speaker's childhood, to California, Tucson, and present-day Beijing, and many airports, highways, and way stations in between. The central concern uniting this collection is language itself: the weight and significance of English and Keres, as well as the nature and power of poetry as a way of life. No collection of Indigenous literature is complete without the work of Simon Ortiz, and this book is a powerful journey through the poet's life—both a love letter to the future, and a sentimental, authentic celebration of the past.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• When I think of air pollution, I think of China.
• i wake this morning at 4 am
• A Sort of Poem or Sort of Story For Red Petal Girl
• For Now
• Ganges
• How Did You Know I Would Be Here I Don’t Know I Said I Just Did
• Saying What You Have To
• I Miss You Right This Minute. I Just Do.
• Bone-deep Gladness: A Tiny Note From Red Petal Girl And My Own Notes
• Not Too Soon A Poem Comes Like The Evening Star So Far Far Away
• Looking toward the Sangre de Cristo Mountains across the valley, I can’t see
• Writing An Anti-war Poem, July 19, 2014
• Already July 30, 2014?
• When We Were Kids
• Quails came by and made me smile
• Views From Shtaa’mah—My Home—Where I Grew Up
• Tiny Tiny Heart Like A Seed
• When You’re Here In September Let’s Find A Desert Spot
• Just An Old Story You Might Know Already
• Freedom And The Lie: Monticello And Thomas Jefferson And The Plan
• I Don’t Quite Know
• Night Sky Dreaming All The Way Beyond The Milky Way
• Giving Receiving Giving
• With Love And Awe
• Moon Croon by Red Boy
• Forever is True?
• Turns
• Memory
• Flying Red Petal Girl
• Technology Trappings & Grandmother Spider
• Always Memory. Jake, Me, You, Youth, and “A Chore and Task”
• Crystal. Chrystals.
• Language Dancing. Maybe.
• That Girl
• Fig
• Hihdruutsi & Tuzigoot Rock Lizards Remember
• What Is The Shape Of A Leaf?
• Rex Barking At The Magpies
• A Long Time Ago Story
• Question Yes & No
• Crickets
• What If
• Seven Tsinah
• Tsunuunuu’gah
• Beauty as Turquoise
• Awake All Night
• Prayer
• Dreams and Reality
• Arthur the Cat Staring With an Intense Meditative Gaze
• Have You Ever Heard of a Horse Whisperer?
• Salvation Or Else
• Piccolo: Octave Higher Than the Ordinary Flute
• Random
• Grandfather and Granddaughter Listening and Hearing
• All of These and More Love
• Reminder
• Jumping Beyond
• Song
• Flaring: Thought Into Color
• Prayers for Raho
• How
• Thunder Flower
• A Poem That’s Not A Poem But What It Is Only A Poem Can Say Words As Such Are A Poor Excuse For Anything But A Poem
• O My
• A New Dance Song For Thunder Woman Gentle and Strong
• East Is Sunrise. And Then What?
• Red Boy Thinks, You Think?
• Going And Coming
• Ode To A Tree, By Rb
• Scares the Shit Out of Me
• Awe: For Better or Worse
• Kee Cumeh Sheh Dzah’dze Ha’maah De’ieu-nahmaa’tyuh. It Was BecauseOne Never Appreciated It. Kee Guwaah Tsieu-peh-taanih?How did the story go?
• I Was Thinking of Time
• Building and Holding and Carrying
• Love Poem Called Quite A Tasty Car, Yeah?
• Wonder & Heaven/Hell
• A Love Poem
• Nest
• Beautiful
• Love
• Guwaadzi, Amoo-uh
• Repetition
• Spoonful Can Have And Should Have Two L’s?
• Sharing. Breathing. Talking. Loving Yourself. Loving Others.
• Flourish
• Hi Jami Love,
• Ever
• Thank You
• Letter From Indio
• Years of Past, Present, Future. Memory. Toward Love.
• Wanting and Needing
• Hummingbird Humming
• light strands between shells and cactus
• Love Time Is Now And Not Too Soon Nor Too Late
• Flowering
• She Writes A Poem With Love. I Write A Poem With Love.
• Looking Forward
• Parent – Child – Reply
• There And Ever: A China Moment
• Qcui’skah Kahguutrutih, Amoo-uh Always
• All Best, Simon J. Ortiz
• Face Time Face
• After my run this morning
• Don’t forget to look at the moon and the mountains.
• Valentine’s Day, February 2022, Love Is Still Love and More
• Way To Go, Dylan
• We Shall Endure
• Casuse
• Resistance
• Marching: Being There Alive
• Must
• Clear Creek: A Favorite Love Poem?
• Poetry Is Like This: Forever Life With Words
• How And Why and Not Knowing
• I Think You Would Have Loved Me When I Was A Boy
• THE END
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• About the Author