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distant water: poems
An exquisite debut poetry collection exploring the way Nez Perce language embodies the inseparable connection of land, sound, and spirit.
Drawing its title from the Nez Perce word for ocean, distant water explores the mysterious process through which language is conveyed from one body to another, moving through waters, kin, memory, and breath. In this meditative, expansive collection, Beth Piatote reveals language as a shared vibration, a life force that sustains an intimate, animate world. Anchored in the Nez Perce homelands of the Northwest, the poems in distant water explore sonic and spiritual ecologies, recognizing land and language as living beings with whom we seek a common mode of expression.
Here, poetic forms mimic the verb-centered structure of Nez Perce language, showing its capacity to express from a single shared root the movement of a sewing needle, the flow of a river, or the memory of a lost love. Language resonates with the land in poems that recall the drumbeat pulse of blood, an echo of grief, the sigh of a dying fire, an archive held in the mouth of a crow. Characters and motifs from traditional stories are recast, celebrating their timeless beauty, humor, and wisdom, and remedies imagined for historical wounds borne by the language itself.
Inventive and resonant, precise and playful, distant water is an invitation to enter a vibrant thought world, to dwell in a grammar and sound born of and belonging to Nez Perce homelands and people, a language at once ancient and ever new.
Drawing its title from the Nez Perce word for ocean, distant water explores the mysterious process through which language is conveyed from one body to another, moving through waters, kin, memory, and breath. In this meditative, expansive collection, Beth Piatote reveals language as a shared vibration, a life force that sustains an intimate, animate world. Anchored in the Nez Perce homelands of the Northwest, the poems in distant water explore sonic and spiritual ecologies, recognizing land and language as living beings with whom we seek a common mode of expression.
Here, poetic forms mimic the verb-centered structure of Nez Perce language, showing its capacity to express from a single shared root the movement of a sewing needle, the flow of a river, or the memory of a lost love. Language resonates with the land in poems that recall the drumbeat pulse of blood, an echo of grief, the sigh of a dying fire, an archive held in the mouth of a crow. Characters and motifs from traditional stories are recast, celebrating their timeless beauty, humor, and wisdom, and remedies imagined for historical wounds borne by the language itself.
Inventive and resonant, precise and playful, distant water is an invitation to enter a vibrant thought world, to dwell in a grammar and sound born of and belonging to Nez Perce homelands and people, a language at once ancient and ever new.
- GenresPoetry
96 pages, Paperback
Published May 12, 2026
About the author
Beth Piatote
5 books39 followersBeth Piatote is a Ni:mi:pu: (Nez Perce) scholar and author. She is a member of Chief Joseph’s Tribe and the Colville Confederated Tribes.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 8, 2026
Sealey Challenge 2026: 28/31
August 20, 2026
Truly remarkable. The language exploration, the building of language. Life and justice. Love.
Beth Piatote, a Nez Perce is a scholar and writer and poet. This is a great find. I treasure it
This title:
“I cause my heart to pour out is how to say remember”
Pin’i
In “praise the deer” a footnote—
I•sqel (particle) an interjection expressing a feeling of longing: oh (I wish)
How much force did it take
to beat the language
out of the body
of a child
About Ghost poem
Translating my poem into English was difficult because it is nearly impossible to capture the elegance of Nez Perce verbs, which not only describe but perform motion:
Beth Piatote, a Nez Perce is a scholar and writer and poet. This is a great find. I treasure it
This title:
“I cause my heart to pour out is how to say remember”
Pin’i
In “praise the deer” a footnote—
I•sqel (particle) an interjection expressing a feeling of longing: oh (I wish)
How much force did it take
to beat the language
out of the body
of a child
About Ghost poem
Translating my poem into English was difficult because it is nearly impossible to capture the elegance of Nez Perce verbs, which not only describe but perform motion:
June 28, 2026
An incredible use of language & sounds across languages. Reading it is a beautiful opportunity to experience Nez Perce words (and English and Latin). In the later portion, Coyote stories intersect with Greek myth in a way that really opens the mind to postcolonial possibilities.
Personal favorite is “two trains,” which has a balance of awe and pain that made me cry. Also loved “Sound Effects” - “we’é / the opening and closing of butterfly wings while butterfly is standing still.” What a word; what a collection!
Personal favorite is “two trains,” which has a balance of awe and pain that made me cry. Also loved “Sound Effects” - “we’é / the opening and closing of butterfly wings while butterfly is standing still.” What a word; what a collection!
July 19, 2026
A truly phenomenal volume of poems, many of them emphasizing on Indigenous language preservation and revitalization. distant water is the sort of collection that encourages the reader to research the origins of each poem's heartbeat, accompanied with breathtaking lines you will want to revisit again and again.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews