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The Gourd Dancer
Momaday draws on various traditions and influences, especially Native American oral tradition, in poems that shift between nature and society, past and present, actuality and legend
- GenresPoetry
64 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
105 people want to read
About the author
N. Scott Momaday
50 books575 followersN. Scott Momaday's baritone voice booms from any stage. The listener, whether at the United Nations in New York City or next to the radio at home, is transported through time, known as 'kairos"and space to Oklahoma near Carnegie, to the "sacred, red earth" of Momaday's tribe.
Born Feb. 27, 1934, Momaday's most famous book remains 1969's House Made of Dawn, the story of a Pueblo boy torn between the modern and traditional worlds, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize and was honored by his tribe. He is a member of the Kiowa Gourd Dance Society. He is also a Regents Professor of Humanities at the University of Arizona, and has published other novels, memoir, plays and poetry. He's been called the dean of American Indian writers, and he has influenced other contemporary Native American writers from Paula Gunn Allen to Louise Erdrich.
Momaday views his writings, published in various books over the years, as one continuous story. Influences on his writing include literature of America and Europe and the stories of the Kiowa and other tribal peoples.
"Native Americans have a unique identity," Momaday told Native Peoples Magazine in 1998. "It was acquired over many thousands of years, and it is the most valuable thing they have. It is their essence and it must not be lost."
Momaday founded The Buffalo Trust in the 1990s to keep the conversations about Native American traditions going. He especially wanted to give Native American children the chance to getting to know elders, and he wanted the elders to teach the children the little details of their lives that make them uniquely Native American. Once the Buffalo Trust arranged for Pueblo children to have lesson from their elders in washing their hair with yucca root as their ancestors did for as long as anyone can remember.
"In the oral tradition," Momaday has said, "stories are not told merely to entertain or instruct. They are told to be believed. Stories are realities lived and believed."
Born Feb. 27, 1934, Momaday's most famous book remains 1969's House Made of Dawn, the story of a Pueblo boy torn between the modern and traditional worlds, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize and was honored by his tribe. He is a member of the Kiowa Gourd Dance Society. He is also a Regents Professor of Humanities at the University of Arizona, and has published other novels, memoir, plays and poetry. He's been called the dean of American Indian writers, and he has influenced other contemporary Native American writers from Paula Gunn Allen to Louise Erdrich.
Momaday views his writings, published in various books over the years, as one continuous story. Influences on his writing include literature of America and Europe and the stories of the Kiowa and other tribal peoples.
"Native Americans have a unique identity," Momaday told Native Peoples Magazine in 1998. "It was acquired over many thousands of years, and it is the most valuable thing they have. It is their essence and it must not be lost."
Momaday founded The Buffalo Trust in the 1990s to keep the conversations about Native American traditions going. He especially wanted to give Native American children the chance to getting to know elders, and he wanted the elders to teach the children the little details of their lives that make them uniquely Native American. Once the Buffalo Trust arranged for Pueblo children to have lesson from their elders in washing their hair with yucca root as their ancestors did for as long as anyone can remember.
"In the oral tradition," Momaday has said, "stories are not told merely to entertain or instruct. They are told to be believed. Stories are realities lived and believed."
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 23, 2021
N. Scott Momaday is a Native American writer of the Kiowa tribe. I honestly thought when I requested this from the library that it was a short story. My bad for not checking GR first. I haven't read a lot of poetry since school which was a LONG time ago, unless one of my groups chooses something that is classified as poetry. The entire book aren't poems but the majority and most are themes on nature. My favorite short verse spoke to me as a reader because it was about the passing on of lore or stories entitled Carriers of the Dream Wheel:
This is the Wheel of Dreams
Which is carried on their voices,
By means of which their voices turn
And center upon being.
It encircles the First World,
This powerful wheel.
They shape their songs upon the wheel
And spin the names of the earth and sky,
The aboriginal names.
They are old men, or men
Who are old in their voices,
And they carry the wheel among the camps,
Saying; Come, come,
Let us tell the old stories,
Let us sing the sacred songs.
My favorite long poem that illustrated the beauty of nature and made me think of wonderful days exploring nature in my kayak. My transcription will not adhere to the format in the book:
New World
1.
First Man, behold: the earth glitters with leaves; the sky glistens with rain.
Pollen is borne on winds that low and lean upon mountains.
Cedars blacken the slopes-and pines.
2.
At dawn eagles hie and hover above the plain where light gathers in pools.
Grasses shimmer and shine.
Shadows withdraw and lie away like smoke.
3.
At noon turtles enter slowly into the warm and dark loam.
Bees hold the swarm.
Meadows recede through planes of heat and pure distance.
4.
At dusk the gray foxes stiffen in cold; blackbirds are fixed in the branches.
Rivers follow the moon, the long white track of the full moon.
This is the Wheel of Dreams
Which is carried on their voices,
By means of which their voices turn
And center upon being.
It encircles the First World,
This powerful wheel.
They shape their songs upon the wheel
And spin the names of the earth and sky,
The aboriginal names.
They are old men, or men
Who are old in their voices,
And they carry the wheel among the camps,
Saying; Come, come,
Let us tell the old stories,
Let us sing the sacred songs.
My favorite long poem that illustrated the beauty of nature and made me think of wonderful days exploring nature in my kayak. My transcription will not adhere to the format in the book:
New World
1.
First Man, behold: the earth glitters with leaves; the sky glistens with rain.
Pollen is borne on winds that low and lean upon mountains.
Cedars blacken the slopes-and pines.
2.
At dawn eagles hie and hover above the plain where light gathers in pools.
Grasses shimmer and shine.
Shadows withdraw and lie away like smoke.
3.
At noon turtles enter slowly into the warm and dark loam.
Bees hold the swarm.
Meadows recede through planes of heat and pure distance.
4.
At dusk the gray foxes stiffen in cold; blackbirds are fixed in the branches.
Rivers follow the moon, the long white track of the full moon.
July 28, 2021
Poetry about Native American life, nature, and grief. A perfectly fine book of poetry, but the style (for me) was rather inconsistent and jarring which made enjoying the imagery and impact difficult. I did particularly enjoy:
The Fear of Bo-talee
To a Child Running with Outstretched Amrs in Canyon de Chelly
The Burning
The Wound << this one was a bit strange and offputting, but fascinating nonetheless
The Fear of Bo-talee
To a Child Running with Outstretched Amrs in Canyon de Chelly
The Burning
The Wound << this one was a bit strange and offputting, but fascinating nonetheless
January 6, 2019
I'm so glad to have encountered the voice of N. Scott Momaday on the PBS documentary series "The West" and doubly so for having been able to find his poetry in the New York Public Library.
November 27, 2019
Definitely one of my favorite south western poets
September 14, 2020
The poet presents, concisely, powerful bursts of the natural world in vivid images transcribed into the rhythm of words with deep cuts of human emotions and wonder.
January 4, 2011
Momaday has a unique and beautiful way with language, demonstrated throughout this lovely book of poetry. 'North Dakota, North Light' is a favorite -- ". . . Rabbits rest in the foreground; / the sky is clenched upon them. / A glassy wind glances / from the ball of bone in my wrist . . ."
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews