Riding the Earthboy 40

by James Welch, James Tate (Introduction)

Now with an introduction from celebrated poet James Tate, Riding the Earthboy 40 is the only volume of poetry written by acclaimed Native American novelist James Welch. The title of the book refers to the forty acres of Montana land Welch's father once leased from a Blackfeet family called Earthboy. This land and its surroundings shaped the writer's worldview as a youth, its rawness resonates in the vitality of his elegant poetry, and his verse shows a great awareness of a moment in time, of a place in nature, and of the human being in context. Deeply evoking the specific Native American experience in Montana, Welch's poems nonetheless speak profoundly to all readers. With its new introduction, this vital work that has influenced so many American writers is certain to capture a new generation of readers.

Genres: Poetry, Indigenous, Native American

68 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

James Welch was a Blackfeet author who wrote several novels considered part of the Native American Renaissance literary movement. He is best known for his novel "Fools Crow" (1986).

His works explore the experiences of Native Americans in the 19th and 20th centuries. He worked with Paul Stekler on the documentary "Last Stand at Little Bighorn" which aired on PBS.

Reviews

[Bill on GR Sabbatical · Rating 3 out of 5]

Riding the Earthboy 40 is Welch's only book of poems, published in 1971 before his distinguished career as a novelist launched with Winter in the Blood in 1974, but Sherman Alexie has called it "the most important book of poetry in all of Native American literature".

Like Richard Hugo, his teacher at the University of Montana, Welch assembled his poems mostly from a dictionary of plain words like horses, wind, bones, knives, winter, snakes, moon, hawk, rain, and from a map of place names like Harlem, Moose Jaw, Dixon, Zortman, Heart Butte (see Hugo's book on writing poetry The Triggering Town), to which he added family names like Heavy Runner, Blackbird, Earthboy, Horseman, Lame Bull.

This, from "The Man from Washington", caught me in its talons like a plummeting hawk:

He promised
that life would go on as usual,
that treaties would be signed, and everyone -
man, woman, and child - would be inoculated
against a world in which we had no part,
a world of money, promise and disease.

And there's some dry humor here and there, like "Grandma's Man", who "never ever/got things quite right". We learn that:

Well, and yes, he died well,
but you should have seen how well his friends took it.

But most of these poems are not nearly so accessible as this. The distance between Welch's life experience as part Blackfeet and part Gros Ventre and mine is already formidable, but his frequent use of surrealism and the personal nature of his vision ensured that the pleasures I took from his book were hard won.

[marriah · Rating 5 out of 5]

officially the best poetry collection i’ve ever read — so beautiful and so complex. i wish i could use language the way Welch does.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful collection that is clearly a spiritual blueprint for Winter in the Blood.

His sins were numerous, this wrong man.
Buttes were good to listen from. With thunder-
hands his father shaped the dust, circled
fire, tumbled up the wind to make a fool.
Now the fool is dead. His bones go back
so scarred in time, the buttes are young to look
for signs that say a man could love his fate,
that winter in the blood is one sad thing.

[Logan]

“Here comes the man I love. His coat is wet and his face is falling like the leaves.” I don’t always parse the total scope of what’s happening in Welch’s poems — either at the center or at the periphery of narrative — which I’m fine with (understandably missing some cultural context, needing to reread, etc.), but his images are generous, varied, satisfying, and often lushly beautiful; this collection is quickly recognizable as a novelist’s first foray into poetry (complimentary). Branching out from poetry into other genres is generally a more reliably successful endeavor than the reverse — there is much spellbinding fiction from poets, and much disastrous poetry from novelists — so when the opposite trajectory is not only successful but intriguing, the subsequent work becomes a rare pleasure indeed. We get something of a narrator-as-(interrupting)-speaker hovering over these poems, occasionally also narrator-as-persona-poem speaker, and also what felt like a storyteller slipping in and out of poems as either character, observer-in-scene, omniscient observer, etc. There’s a kind of wistfulness to Welch’s more abstract images too that builds a sort of outline of a memory and history behind them, like a play staged entirely through sharp shadows, so that even poems of unclear literal narratives have a guiding emotional logic to them… I think I need to sit with some of my favorite lines from him more, it’s a kind of language you want to first soak in rather than the kind of poetry that steers you into being immediately or swiftly evaluative.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poetry collections always feel a bit uneven to me, but some of the poems really stand out.

[Chandra Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5 stars. This just didn’t happen to be my cup of poetry... but I’m sure it is exactly what others like. Hey, at least I read some poetry for Poetry Month!

[Andrewhouston · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't really know that much about poetry. I like Dylan Thomas very much but don't pretend to understand much. I have a couple books by Seamus Heaney, William Carlos Williams, Yeats. This poetry book by James Welch was his first published book and only book of poetry. It's beautiful and easier to read and understand more than Thomas. I think it's the only book of poetry that I can read from front to back cover. The poems all feel interconnected and the book is almost like a novella or book of short stories the way a narrative seems to flow through the whole volume. James Welch's fiction novels "The Death of Jim Loney" and "Fools Crow" are also excellent and I plan to read more soon.

[Mark Valentine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am moved by the audacious, simple, raw language in these poems. They have a cosmic balance that is as simple as a cloud bank, a farm row, and they are as sparse as a bum outside the tavern. The loss is palpable, whether on the reservation or in Harlem, Montana, and the language has a "quick coldness" while the creativity shows links to nature, cut and bleeding. Reading them straight through made it so that by the book's end, I felt.

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

More people need to read this.

The only reason I'm not marking this 5/5 is that some of the poems bent back too surreal, which is fine, but I struggled to keep my footing, and this reflects me as a reader far more than it reflects Welch as a poet. I'll revisit this collection again.

Many of these poems address alienation, reservation life, the natural world, and a biter resignation of not belonging.

These poems:
* Directions to the Nomad
* In My Lifetime
* Harlem, Montana: Just Off the Reservation
* Riding the Earthboy 40
* Plea to Those Who Matter
* D-Y Bar
* There is a Right Way
* Grandfather at the Rest Home

(This is not a ranked order, merely sequential. See table of contents)

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Welch's first novel, Winter in the Blood, and wanted to read his poetry, which at least in part influenced it. Undoubtedly, there are a number of remarkable poems in this collection, but for some reason I found myself disappointed by it as a whole. I think, perhaps, I had issues with accessibility and engagement. I couldn't quite grasp the point of poems that felt purposeful, and in others I was unmoved by the imagery or the language itself, at least in relation to how deeply moved I was by his prose.

[Patricia N. McLaughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Welch’s poetry has that deceptive quality of art carved down to its bare essentials, like petroglyphs: stark in the clarity of images, ineffable in the depiction of worlds beyond language—at once firmly rooted in the poet’s native soil of Montana and fixed in the constellations of Big Sky country.

Favorite Poems:
“Blue Like Death”
“The World’s Only Corn Palace”
“Harlem, Montana: Just Off the Reservation”
“Riding the Earthboy 40”
“Plea to Those Who Matter”
“The Man from Washington”
“The Only Bar in Dixon”
“Thanksgiving at Snake Butte”
“The Renegade Wants Words”
“Snow Country Weavers”
“There Is a Right Way”
“Gravely”
“Never Give a Bum an Even Break”

[Brian Beatty · Rating 4 out of 5]

The point of a book review is to put into words what a book means to you. Unfortunately, the poems in this book move me in ways I can't articulate. All I know is I succumb to the spell of their Native American lore every time I return to this collection, which is often. Welch went on to make his reputation as a novelist, but that in no way discounts this early poetry.

[TK421 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish my words could convey some modicum of thought regarding the impact of this collection. To try to fully articulate any thought would be a great injustice to Welch's words. These poems are the type that one must read and reflect. And then repeat this process over and over again.

[aubrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

read for my Native literature class.

okay, this one was way more what the fuck than I was expecting. still don't know how to read poetry or what "fish not fish but stars/that fell into their dreams" is supposed to mean but go off girlboss.

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super uneven but when it’s good it’s magical. When it’s not it’s still good.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10

this was really difficult for me, but i’m starting to warm up to this whole poetry thing

[Molly]

2023 Sealey Challenge 20/31

[Maisie Kirn · Rating 4 out of 5]

While prose was undeniably Welch's strong suit, there are a few poems in this collection (his only collection of poetry) that are sharp and crushing. You can hear Richard Hugo speaking through Welch here, one of his former students. A great little book to read if you are a student or lover of Montanan poetry and legend.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a small handful of books that I can't really get away from. This is one of them. I return to this book every couple of months to dig out a poem or five.

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting collection of poems. "The Day the Children Took Over" is an excellent piece.

[Aimee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I flipped around in this one before reading Winter in the Blood, which I absolutely loved. I suggest reading both at the same time as they are related.