Songs From This Earth on Turtle's Back: Contemporary American Indian Poetry

by Joseph Bruchac

Poetry. Native American Studies. This anthology of poetry includes fifty-two poets from more than thirty-five different Native American nations. Some of the poets include Elizabeth Woody, Joy Harjo, Adrian C. Louis, Barney Bush, Jim Barnes, and Peter Blue Cloud. Each poet is introduced with a biographical paragraph followed by a selection of their poetry. The publication Booklist says this book is "recommended for large high school libraries as a generous collection of poems by present-day American Indian writers." Library Journal found it "essential for subject collection in academic and larger public libraries."

Genres: Poetry, Native American

304 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1983

About the author

Joseph Bruchac lives with his wife, Carol, in the Adirondack mountain foothills town of Greenfield Center, New York, in the same house where his maternal grandparents raised him. Much of his writing draws on that land and his Abenaki ancestry. Although his American Indian heritage is only one part of an ethnic background that includes Slovak and English blood, those Native roots are the ones by which he has been most nourished. He, his younger sister Margaret, and his two grown sons, James and Jesse, continue to work extensively in projects involving the preservation of Abenaki culture, language and traditional Native skills, including performing traditional and contemporary Abenaki music with the Dawnland Singers.

He holds a B.A. from Cornell University, an M.A. in Literature and Creative Writing from Syracuse and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the Union Institute of Ohio. His work as a educator includes eight years of directing a college program for Skidmore College inside a maximum security prison. With his wife, Carol, he is the founder and Co-Director of the Greenfield Review Literary Center and The Greenfield Review Press. He has edited a number of highly praised anthologies of contemporary poetry and fiction, including Songs from this Earth on Turtle's Back, Breaking Silence (winner of an American Book Award) and Returning the Gift. His poems, articles and stories have appeared in over 500 publications, from American Poetry Review, Cricket and Aboriginal Voices to National Geographic, Parabola and Smithsonian Magazine. He has authored more than 70 books for adults and children, including The First Strawberries, Keepers of the Earth (co-authored with Michael Caduto), Tell Me a Tale, When the Chenoo Howls (co-authored with his son, James), his autobiography Bowman's Store and such novels as Dawn Land, The Waters Between, Arrow Over the Door and The Heart of a Chief. Forthcoming titles include Squanto's Journey (Harcourt), a picture book, Sacajawea (Harcourt), an historical novel, Crazy Horse's Vision (Lee & Low), a picture book, and Pushing Up The Sky (Dial), a collection of plays for children. His honors include a Rockefeller Humanities fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellowship for Poetry, the Cherokee Nation Prose Award, the Knickerbocker Award, the Hope S. Dean Award for Notable Achievement in Children's Literature and both the 1998 Writer of the Year Award and the 1998 Storyteller of the Year Award from the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. In 1999, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas.

As a professional teller of the traditional tales of the Adirondacks and the Native peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Joe Bruchac has performed widely in Europe and throughout the United States from Florida to Hawaii and has been featured at such events as the British Storytelling Festival and the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesboro, Tennessee. He has been a storyteller-in-residence for Native American organizations and schools throughout the continent, including the Institute of Alaska Native Arts and the Onondaga Nation School. He discusses Native culture and his books and does storytelling programs at dozens of elementary and secondary schools each year as a visiting author.

Reviews

[Thomas Weso · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic, with thanks to Joseph Bruchac for this innovative text.

[B Sarv · Rating 5 out of 5]

This anthology was compiled long enough ago that several of the poets presented here have passed away. I feel so fortunate to be able to hear their voices. I hope one day my grandchildren will be able to read these works.

Some of my favorites were:

Why Stone Does Not Sing By Itself, There Are Three Bones in the Human Ear, and Song Maker by Anita Endrezze-Danielson; Just an Old Man and Friends by Mary Goose; Backyard Swing by Janet Cambell-Hale; Appearance by Norman H. Russell; and The Last Dream by Ray H. Young Bear.

But beyond these favorites there were so many others. To excerpt the poet Delmore Schwartz, "Time is the Fire in which we burn." These poets could be consumed by time, unknown by many. I count myself abundantly fortunate to be one who has known them, ever so fleetingly. Time, among other things, prevents me from collecting all of their individual books and sitting down to read them all day long. If I could I would.

If you can get your hands on a copy of this book, and if you enjoy poetry, I highly recommend this collection.

[Shari · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was assigned reading in a graduate-level poetry class, and for good reason. It's the best poetry anthology out there. Period. No one has topped it. (If you think you've found a better anthology, I'd appreciate a recommendation in the comments). "Songs From this Earth on Turtle's Back" makes Alexie's "Best American Poetry" look like "Good Housekeeping." If you are someone who buys books and then donates most, like me, expect to keep this one. If you write poetry and feel like you're getting stale, this should help.

[Steven Dorma · Rating 4 out of 5]

just like any kind of poetry really. i mainly liked the fact that all the poetry was written by native americans, besides that it had a good variety of poetry. a very good mixture of poems that made me feel alot of different ways that weren't to over the top... like i could read one sink myself into that for the day.

[Jodie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is full of beautiful poetry written by Native American writers.