Poetry
Summer 2003
Kaktovik Whale Hunters
Barter Island, Alaska, 1981 At the far edge of the known world the ice pack shifts all night, moaning a sad and ancient song I have not heard before,while […]
Poetry
Summer 2003
How to Conquer the New World
When I was fourteen Sanford Nicolai spoke at a potlatch. He looked around the Great Hall upon many faces from different clans, pointed out the frost-lined window toward the white […]
Poetry
Summer 2003
Dghelaay Let
(in Ahtna Athabaskan) Ahtna nen niidze taan taa’ki miles caax, K’elt’aeni gge’. Nildentah let tsiniyaa dghelaay tsit’aak’e. Da’atnae ts’elnes let ts’en kon’ ce’yiige. Lu denaey t’edyaak, nae ce’yiige naa […]
Poetry
Summer 2003
Mountain Smoke
At the center of Indian country, three miles high, rises Mount Wrangell. Sometimes smoke comes from the mountaintop. Elders believe it is smoke from the campfires of spirits. It is […]
Poetry
Summer 2003
So Begins the Lasting Silence
There is no doubt I will be the last speakerof our dying language. I will know that day has come when I call out across the frozen river from our […]
Poetry
Winter 1996
The Meal
It is a clear evening and Denali is close upon the blue-edged horizon. A jay watches me from atop a ski pushed upright into crusted snow outside the cabin […]
Poetry
Winter 1996
The Road to Chitina
By the Edgerton highway, towards blue- edged Sanford, a tattered fishwheel, its birch basket sifting only a tired wind. Near the river village, when night fills tall shadowslike Raven's unfolding […]
Poetry
Winter 1996
Night Crossing
The dense forest offers a path leading to ancient pines circling a frozen pond where my shadow, tall and lean, skates along the trail behind me. A wolf crosses […]