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Savings
"Rather than painting a picture of Indian life, Linda Hogan resurrects its symbols and uses them in new ways. The power of the scorpion or the elk in Hogan's work comes...form her orchestrating of these images. This book is startling."-- Hungry Mind Review
- GenresPoetry
80 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1988
1 person is currently reading
75 people want to read
About the author
Linda Hogan
80 books553 followersLinda K. Hogan (born 1947 Denver) is a Native American poet, storyteller, academic, playwright, novelist, environmentalist and writer of short stories. She is currently the Chickasaw Nation's Writer in Residence.
Linda Hogan is Chickasaw. Her father is a Chickasaw from a recognized historical family and Linda's uncle, Wesley Henderson, helped form the White Buffalo Council in Denver during the 1950s. It was to help other Indian people coming to the city because of The Relocation Act, which encouraged migration for work and other opportunities. He had a strong influence on her and she grew up relating strongly to both her Chickasaw family in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and to a mixed Indian community in the Denver area. At other times, her family traveled because of the military.
Her first university teaching position was in American Indian Studies and American Studies at the University of Minnesota. After writing her first book, Calling Myself Home, she continued to write poetry. Her work has both a historical and political focus, but is lyrical. Her most recent books are The Book of Medicines (1993) and Rounding the Human Corners. (2008) She is also a novelist and essayist. Her work centers on the world of Native peoples, from both her own indigenous perspective and that of others. She was a full professor of Creative Writing at the University of Colorado and then taught the last two years in the University's Ethnic Studies Department. She currently is the Writer in Residence for her own Chickasaw Nation.
Essayist, novelist, and poet, Hogan has published works in many different backgrounds and forms. Her concentration is on environmental themes. She has acted as a consultant in bringing together Native tribal representatives and feminist themes, particularly allying them to her Native ancestry. Her work, whether fiction or non-fiction, expresses an indigenous understanding of the world.
She has written essays and poems on a variety of subjects, both fictional and nonfictional, biographical and from research. Hogan has also written historical novels. Her work studies the historical wrongs done to Native Americans and the American environment since the European colonization of North America.
Hogan was a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Oklahoma. She is the (inaugural) Writer-in-Residence for the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma. In October 2011, she instructed a writing workshop through the Abiquiu Workshops in Abiquiu, New Mexico.
(from Wikipedia)
Linda Hogan is Chickasaw. Her father is a Chickasaw from a recognized historical family and Linda's uncle, Wesley Henderson, helped form the White Buffalo Council in Denver during the 1950s. It was to help other Indian people coming to the city because of The Relocation Act, which encouraged migration for work and other opportunities. He had a strong influence on her and she grew up relating strongly to both her Chickasaw family in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and to a mixed Indian community in the Denver area. At other times, her family traveled because of the military.
Her first university teaching position was in American Indian Studies and American Studies at the University of Minnesota. After writing her first book, Calling Myself Home, she continued to write poetry. Her work has both a historical and political focus, but is lyrical. Her most recent books are The Book of Medicines (1993) and Rounding the Human Corners. (2008) She is also a novelist and essayist. Her work centers on the world of Native peoples, from both her own indigenous perspective and that of others. She was a full professor of Creative Writing at the University of Colorado and then taught the last two years in the University's Ethnic Studies Department. She currently is the Writer in Residence for her own Chickasaw Nation.
Essayist, novelist, and poet, Hogan has published works in many different backgrounds and forms. Her concentration is on environmental themes. She has acted as a consultant in bringing together Native tribal representatives and feminist themes, particularly allying them to her Native ancestry. Her work, whether fiction or non-fiction, expresses an indigenous understanding of the world.
She has written essays and poems on a variety of subjects, both fictional and nonfictional, biographical and from research. Hogan has also written historical novels. Her work studies the historical wrongs done to Native Americans and the American environment since the European colonization of North America.
Hogan was a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Oklahoma. She is the (inaugural) Writer-in-Residence for the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma. In October 2011, she instructed a writing workshop through the Abiquiu Workshops in Abiquiu, New Mexico.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 27, 2018
One of the first poetry collections that moved me; Hogan is great.
August 31, 2020
30/31
This book was published in 1988. I apparently bought it in 1998. It only took me 22 years to read (I have been hoarding quite a few books of poetry…). Linda Hogan is a member of the Chickasaw nation; her poetry is filled with observation, musing, and some damn fine final stanzas. Again and again. I know her obliquely, though she would not say she knows me obliquely. That’s the way things go.
#SealeyChallenge #LindaHogan
the final stanza from “Two of Hearts”
"But I will never forget
to recite history,
to recall the entire world
and all the young men
who became sergeants
with terror
disguised in their soft, loving hands,
the hands that hold hands with death,
and I am their blood,
no matter what,
and I am not their blood,
no matter,
but, oh, this world,
this cut and cutting world."
This book was published in 1988. I apparently bought it in 1998. It only took me 22 years to read (I have been hoarding quite a few books of poetry…). Linda Hogan is a member of the Chickasaw nation; her poetry is filled with observation, musing, and some damn fine final stanzas. Again and again. I know her obliquely, though she would not say she knows me obliquely. That’s the way things go.
#SealeyChallenge #LindaHogan
the final stanza from “Two of Hearts”
"But I will never forget
to recite history,
to recall the entire world
and all the young men
who became sergeants
with terror
disguised in their soft, loving hands,
the hands that hold hands with death,
and I am their blood,
no matter what,
and I am not their blood,
no matter,
but, oh, this world,
this cut and cutting world."
September 4, 2019
"the feet saying
no more
no more"
This is a book of poems that stretches us out into ourselves.
no more
no more"
This is a book of poems that stretches us out into ourselves.
January 1, 2015
Each poet has her own symbolism, some favorite images or metaphors that figure prominently in her work. Until now I'd only read Linda Hogan's later work and a selected poem here and there. In Savings, some of her major themes and symbols are just coming to life. I enjoyed reading as she explored images, taking different paths and approaches to the same idea, revealing a little more of her thinking in the process. Not to diminish the writing; I love too many of the poems in this collection to list them out. But I've met a number of readers in my life who don't like poetry, and while part of that I think is finding poets whose images speak to you, another part is allowing yourself to feel from the poet's view, and so I find myself noticing writing that facilitates the development of that skill.
January 5, 2017
"Potholes" by Linda Hogan:
"The streets we live by fall away.
Even the asphalt is tired
of this going and coming to work,
the chatter in cars,
and passengers crying on bad days.
Trucks with frail drivers
carry dangerous loads. Have care,
these holes are not just holes
but a million years of history
opening up, all our beautiful failures
and gains. The earth is breathing
through the streets.
Rain falls.
The lamps of earth switch on.
The potholes are full
of light and stars, the moon's many faces.
Mice drink there in the streets.
The skunks of night drift by.
They swallow the moon.
When morning comes,
workers pass this way again,
cars with lovely merchandise. Drivers,
take care, a hundred suns look out of earth
beneath circling tires."
"The streets we live by fall away.
Even the asphalt is tired
of this going and coming to work,
the chatter in cars,
and passengers crying on bad days.
Trucks with frail drivers
carry dangerous loads. Have care,
these holes are not just holes
but a million years of history
opening up, all our beautiful failures
and gains. The earth is breathing
through the streets.
Rain falls.
The lamps of earth switch on.
The potholes are full
of light and stars, the moon's many faces.
Mice drink there in the streets.
The skunks of night drift by.
They swallow the moon.
When morning comes,
workers pass this way again,
cars with lovely merchandise. Drivers,
take care, a hundred suns look out of earth
beneath circling tires."
September 6, 2007
Very nice poetry.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews