New Poets of the American West

-An anthology of poets from eleven Western states-

Uni Gottingen 230 r

to 2, ft 341

Many Voices Press Flathead Valley Community College Table of Contents

Editor's Note: "In This Spirit I Gathered These Poems" by Lowell Jaeger 1

Introduction: "Many Voices, Many Wests" by Brady Harrison 7

Arizona Dick Bakken Going into Moonlight 20 Sherwin Bitsui (excerpted from: Flood Song) 21 Jefferson Carter Match Race 22 A Centaur 22 Virgil Chabre Wyoming Miners 23 David Chorlton Everyday Opera 24 Jim Harrison Blue 25 Rene Char II 25 Love 26 Larson's Holstein Bull 26 Cynthia Hogue That Wild Chance of Living (2001) 27 Will Inman The Bones that Humans Lacked 28 given names 28 mesquite mother territory 29 To Catch the Truth 29 James Jay Mars Hill 30 Hershman John Two Parts Hydrogen, One Part Oxygen 31 Jane Miller xii (excerpted from Midnights) 32 Jim Natal The Half-Life of Memory 33 Sean Nevin The Carpenter Bee 34 Wildfire Triptych 34 Losing Solomon 37 Simon J. Ortiz just phoenix 38 Michael Rattee Spring 39

II David Ray The Sleepers 40 Illegals 41 Arizona Satori 41 The White Buffalo 42 Judy Ray These Days 43 Alberto Rfos Border Lines (Lineas Fronterizas) 44 Rabbits and Fire 45 Refugio's Hair 46 Mi Biblioteca Publica (My Public Library) 47 Rebecca Seiferle Ghost Riders in the Sky 48 Apache Tears 49 Leslie Marmon Silko How to Hunt Buffalo 50 Laurel Speer Buffalo Stones 52 Candyman 52 Luci Tapahonso After Noon in Yooto 53 Miles Waggener Direction 54 Nicole Walker Canister and Turkey Vulture 55

California Kim Addonizio Yes 58 In the Evening, 59 William Archila Blinking Lights 60 Ellen Bass GateC22 61 Women Walking 62 Ode to Dr. Ladd's Black Slit Skirt 64 Christopher Buckley OffShore 65 Wine 66 Maxine Chernoff Oracular 67 Garden/Book 67 Marilyn Chin Formosan Elegy 68 After Enlightenment, There Is Yam Gruel 69 Craig Cotter 5/23/96 70

III Carol V. Davis Entering the Forest 72 Lucille Lang Day 710Ashbury, 1967 73 James DenBoer Three Men on Isle Royale 74 Red Wine 74 John Dofflemyer I Owe My Soul 75 Teresa Chuc Dowell Names 76 John Olivares Espinoza Aching Knees in Palm Springs 77 CBFollett Early Morning, Yosemite 78 Thea Gavin Mystery Rider 79 Dana Gioia The Apple Orchard 80 Rafael Jesus Gonzalez To an Old Woman (A una anciana) 81-82 Corrinne Clegg Hales Out of This Place 83 Covenant: Atomic Energy Commission, 1950s 85 Allison Adelle Hedge Coke Street Confetti 88 Jane Hirshfield First Light Edging Cirrus 89 French Horn 89 The Dark Hour 90 Sonoma Fire 90 Green-Striped Melons 90 Maggie Jaffe Sign of the Times 91 Ilya Kaminsky We Lived Happily During the War 92 To Live 92 George Keithley The Red Bluff Rodeo 93 Steve Kowit Kiss 95 Karen An-hwei Lee White Gardenias and a Letter 96 Philip Levine In the White City 97 1934 98 Samuel Maio South Central L. A. 100 Pleasanton Villanelle 101 IV Clarence Major Photograph of a Gathering of People Waving 102 The Doll Believers 103 Michael McGriff Seasons Between Night and Day 104 Buying and Selling 105 Foxgloves 106 Sandra McPherson Grouse 107 Phlox Diffusa 108 Carol Muske-Dukes Condolence Note: Los Angeles 109 Melinda Palacio El South-Central Cucuy 110 Wendy Rose Grandmother Rattler 111 Kay Ryan Cirque 113 Dew 113 Dixie Salazar Altar for the Altar-less 114 Jeffrey Schultz J. Learns the Difference Between Poverty and Having No Money 115 Kim Shuck OffWestish 116 Maurya Simon Waste Management 117 Keeping Track 118 Gary Soto Romance at the River Bend Called Three Rocks 119 Anniversary Poem 119 Short Lives 120 David St. John Los Angeles, 1954 121 Susan Terris Sheepeater Cave 123 Undercut 123 Amber Flora Thomas Swarm 124 Lynne Thompson Soar 125 Joyce E. Young Lizard 126 Al Young Dawn at Oakland Airport 127 American Time 128 Process 129

V Colorado Peter Anderson Night Drive on 1-80 132 True News from a Small Town Beat 132 Aaron Anstett Indeed I Was 133 Prayer Against Dying on Camera 133 Dan Beachy-Quick Walking Through the Room 134 James Gleason Bishop Beyond the Black Iron Bars 135 Kathy Conde Seekers 136 Climbing after a Fall 136 Mary Crow Saturday Matinee 137 Fault-Finding 138 Marfa, Texas 138 Art Goodtimes Skinning the Elk 139 Noah Eli Gordon All Orange Blossoms Have to Do Is Act Naturally 140 Jane Hilberry The Moment 141 Joseph Hutchison Black River 142 Sleepwalkers 143 From a Swaying Hammock 143 Mark Irwin Rider 144 . Shoes 144 Robert King About Eight Minutes of Light in the Meadow 145 Now 145 Marilyn Krysl Love, That Hugeness 146 Sacrament: Central Bus Station 147 Song of Some Ruins 148 Sheryl Luna Las Alas 149 David Mason Fog Horns 150 Home Care 151 Maria Melendez Recipe for When You're Tired of Feeding Your Family Life Cereal from a Box 152 Backcountry, Emigrant Gap 152 Randy Phillis What's a Boy to Do? 153 VI Pattiann Rogers In the Silence Following 154 For the Moral of the Story 15 5 William Pitt Root Crossing The Rez 156 Craft 157 Reg Saner Alpine Forget-Me-Nots 158 North of Wupatki 158 Rawdon Tomlinson Flying with Father 159 Deep Red 160 Bill Tremblay Where the Ashes Go 161 Raptors at Terry Lake 161 Pamela Uschuk Finding Peaches in the Desert 162 Loving the Outlaw 163

Idaho Margaret Aho to be flanking the petiole 166 Gary Gildner Cleaning a Rainbow 167 Ella 168 Spring Evenings 169 Larry N. Gwartney Whistle Pigs 170 William Johnson New Year's Eve 171 Ron McFarland Fishing in Last Light 172 The Bird Hunter's Art 173 Tiffany Midge After Viewing the Holocaust Museum's Room of Shoes and a Gallery of Plains Indians Moccasins: Washington, D.C. 174 Diane Raptosh Husband 176 Wendy Simpson At the Truckstop Cafe 177 Georgia Tiffany Trouble with Kindness 178 Robert Wrigley The Other World 179 Progress 180 Misunderstanding 181 Nadine York Practical Math 182

VII Montana Sandra Alcosser Spittle Bug 184 Glory Monster 185 Sunk Pa (Minerva Allen) My Indian Relatives (Nakoda Meda Goo Yeah Be) 186-187 Zu Yea E Nanah (You Went to War) 188 Circle of Time 189 Beautiful Existence 189 Judy Blunt When Cowboys Cry 190 Showdown 191 Heather Cahoon Rescue at L8000 Road 192 Ed Chaberek "Every Bit Helps" 193 Victor A. Charlo Agnes 194 ' Bad Wine 194 Remember This Time 194 Buffalo (Qeyqay) 195 You, You Missed Me 195 Put Sey (Good Enough) 196 Roger Dunsmore You're Just Dirt 197 A True War Story 198 Mark Gibbons Back into Rock 199 Jennifer Greene Rocky Boy Visit 200 Arlee (my hometown) 201 Tami Haaland Liar 202 Not Scientifically Verifiable 203 Ann White Haggett She Teeters 204 Lowell Jaeger My Neighbor 205 The Missionary 206 Mom Said 206 Melissa Kwasny Chokecherries 207 Iris 208 Ed Lahey The Blind Horses 210 Gimp O'Leary's Iron Works 211 Inside Her 212 Moving 213

VIII Eve Malo El Pozo de mis abuelos (My Grandparents'Well) 214 Robert Pack Blindness 215 November 216 Greg Pape Storm Pattern 218 Lower Yellowstone Falls 219 View of the Bitterroot 220 Carolyn Pettit Pinet Six Women Laughing 221 Lois Red Elk Wakanyeja (Sacred Gift) 222 Porcupine on the Highway 223 Henry Real Bird Tail That's Light 224 June Billings Safford The Vet Said She May Have Been Thirty 225 M. L. Smoker Variola 226 Cas Still Counting 229 David E. Thomas The Ten Thousand Things 230 Joe Wilkins Then I Packed You up the Ridge Like a Brother on My Back 232 Highway 233 Paul Zarzyski What's Sacred: 234 Partner 235

Nevada Krista Benjamin Letter from My Ancestors 238 Roy A. Chavez Cafe parados (Coffee for Two) 239-240 Bill Cowee Do Not Resuscitate 241 No Place To Anchor The Ladder 241 Joe Crowley Power Plants 242 To the Rear, March! 242 Robert Gonzales Calambro 243 Shaun T. Griffin The Meth Addict out My Window 244 Heron Dance 245 Los Vendedores 245

IX Linda Hussa On a Clear, Cold Calving Night 246 Love Letters 247 The Un-doing of Heaven's Match 248 The Weir 249 Claudia Keelan Leaving Las Vegas 250 Adrian C. Louis Approximate Haiku, 1980 251 In the Colony 251 Stephen Shu-Ning Liu A Mid-July Invitation 252 Steven Nightingale A Visit to the Country 253 nila northSun country 254 the little shits in daycare 255 Gailmarie Pahmeier Saving Face 256 Home Maintenance 257 Ismael Garcia Santillanes Jimmy Took Too Long to Die 258 Gary Short Teaching Poetry to 3rd Graders 259 Test 260 Magpies in the Graveyard 261

New Mexico Tacey M. Atsitty Alch'a'abaa' 264 Fourteen Days After Shima's Vision 265 Amenorrhea 265 Jimmy Santiago Baca XXVI (de Meditaciones sobre el Valle del Sur / from Meditations on the South Valley) 267 - 268 VIII (de Meditaciones sobre el Valle del Sur / from Meditations on the South Valley) 269 Jim Barnes Autobiography, Chapter 5: Ghost Town 270 Paiute Ponies 270 The Ranch, Wild Horse Canyon, 1943 271 Marianne A. Broyles American Island 272 Jon Davis Horse in Shadow 273 Loving Horses 273 Joy Harjo Songline of Dawn 275 Perhaps the World Ends Here 276 Rainy Dawn 277 Eagle Poem 277 Phyllis Hoge section iii (from El Paso) 278 Joan Logghe Blanco Ascending 279 Carol Moldaw Festina Lente 280 Out of the West 281 Sara Marie Ortiz From First Emergence to Last 282 Michael Pettit Sparrow of Espanola 283 Driving Lesson 284 Leo Romero Perros Del Diablo 286 An Angel Aids Jesus 288 Henry Shukman Step 289 The Airport Shuttle 290 Arthur Sze Looking Back on the Muckleshoot Reservation from Galisteo Street, Santa Fe 291 Qualia 291 Diane Thiel Wild Horses, Placitas 292 At the Mailbox 292 Richard Vargas laid off 293 baby brother's blues 294 ancestor 295 race war 296 Erika T. Wurth Oh, Cousin 297 In Order to Save the Woman 297 Venaya Yazzie The Pine Nut Eaters 298 Ma'ii Alkidaayee Yenalnii (Coyote Remembers) 299

Oregon Ginger Andrews Rolls-Royce Dreams 302 Prayer 303 Real Men 304 David Axelrod The Spirit of Place 305 It's for Our Own Good, Actually 306 Henry Carlile Train Whistles in the Wind and Rain 307

XI The Book of the Deer, the Bear, and the Elk 309 Nature 310 '< Matthew Dickman Some Days 311 Barbara Drake Driving One Hundred 313 Michele Glazer To the better view 314 Bette Lynch Husted Anything a Box Will Hold 315 GarrettHongo On the Origin of Blind-Boy Lilikoi 316 Kubota to the Chinese Poets Detained on Angel Island 317 M. E.Hope Sawdust 319 Escape 319 Lawson Fusao Inada Nobody, Nothing 320 IV. The Legend of Lost Boy 322 X. The Legend of the Magic Marbles 323 The Legend of Targets 324 Everything 324 Harold Johnson Lake Forest Memorial 325 Smell Theory 325 And You, Gilbert Stuart 326 DorianneLaux Bakersfield, 1969 328 Joy L. McDowell The Rest I Imagine 329 Unfinished Rooms 329 Wedding Vandals 330 1962: Gods of the Afternoon 330 Robert McDowell So That's It 331 War 331 Carlos Reyes The Old West 332 August Wind 333 Jenny Root Money to Burn 334 Vern Rutsala Speaking Her Lonely Greek 336 Prospectus for Visitors 336 Maxine Scates What I Wanted to Say 338 What Do We Know and When Do We Know It? 339

XII Penelope Scambly Schott In This Time of War, 340 April, Again 341 Peter Sears Plane Down in Moriches Bay 342 Floyd Skloot Dowsing for Joy 343 Primus St. John The Sniper 344 Water Carrier 344 The Marathon 344 Kim Stafford At the Indian Cemetery on the Oregon Coast 345 Louise 346 Beside the Road While Our Nation Is at War 347 Patricia Staton Walking After Dinner 348 Pamela Steele Geography 349 Hands 349 Lisa M. Steinman Elegy with Policeman 350 Thought Under Construction 350 Puzzling 351 Ellen Waterston Spring Calver 352 Drought Dirge 353 Painted Shut 354 Ingrid Wendt After a Class in Seaweed 355 Benediction 356 John Witte Truck 357 Elizabeth Woody Flight 358 Reveille 358

Utah Sandy Anderson David Emmanuel's Wife 360 Rob Carney January 26, 2009 361 Two-Story, Stone and Brick, Single-Family Dwelling 361 Elaine Wright Christensen I Have Learned 5 Things 362 Inside 363 Christopher Cokinos Solstice Poem 2005 364

XIII Katharine Coles Natural Disasters 365 Star Coulbrooke How I Stopped Selling Life Insurance 369 Men Working 370 Halina Duraj Vertiginous 371 Michael Hicks Whaling 372 Linda M. Jefferies Sunday's Tie 373 Kimberly Johnson Voluptuary 374 Pater Noster 375 Lance Larsen Americana 376 Like a Wolf 377 Why Do You Keep Putting Animals in Your Poems? 378 David Lee Racehogs 379 TheTaleoftheGraveblaster 380 Jan Minich Attachment 381 Rod Miller ABoltofBroomtails 382 Go Home Again 382 Paisley Rekdal A Small, Soul-Colored Thing 383 Natasha Saje Reading Henry Fowler's Modern English Usage in Salt Lake City in November 385 Michael Sowder The Lost Verse 386 Nancy Takacs The New Year at Albertsons 387 Mike White The Bowling Alley's Giant Neon Pin 389 Go Around 390 Basho, Glimpsed 390 Laurelyn Whitt Aftershocks 391 Deertime: Spanish Fork Canyon 392

Washington Sherman Alexie Wreck League 394 Christianne Balk Daughter, Athlete 397

XIV Boyd W. Benson April Wedding 398 Marvin Bell The Book of the Dead Man (The Northwest) 399 James Bertolino Sun Worship 401 Allen Braden Grinding Grain 402 The Hemlock Tree 403 Elizabeth Bradfield Multi-Use Area 404 Cul-de-sac Linguistics 405 Alice Derry Deposition 406 Dana Dickerson The Last Bastion for the Wrong Kind of Liberal 408 Kathleen Flenniken Whole-Body Counter, Marcus Whitman Elementary 409 Herb Parker Feels Like Dancing 410 Going Down 412 Erin Fristad Advice to Female Deckhands 413 What's Left 414 Carmen Germain April, Seattle to Missoula 416 Samuel Green Grandmother, Cleaning Rabbits 417 Stroke 418 Lady Slipper 419 Sam Hamill Children of the Marketplace 420 Sharon Hashimoto Because You Showed Me a Piece of Barbed Wire 421 Wonder Bread 422 Mark Halperin Fasting on Yom Kippur 423 Accident 424 Christopher Howell Desperados 425 Greenhouse Sparks and Snow 426 Burning Bush 427 Kim-An Lieberman Swallows Nesting 428 Translation 429 Marjorie Manwaring Treasure 430 Terry Martin Moving On 431 September Ripens and So Do We 431

XV Robert McNamara Winter, Tulalip Shores 432 Duane Niatum A Tribute to Chief Joseph (1840?—1904) 433 Tide Blossoms 434 Dixie Partridge Fish 435 About Stones 436 Peter Pereira Angel to Love, Man to World: My Father's Great Books 437 Lucia Perillo The Revelation 438 First Job / Seventeen 439 Charles Potts Starlight on the Trail 440 Joseph Powell Pecking Order 441 The Apple-Heifer 442 Bill Ransom Shooting the Thief 443 Susan Rich Mohamud at the Mosque 444 Naming It 445 Derek Sheffield A Good Fish 446 Judith Skillman Used 447 Laura L. Snyder Evidence 448 Michael Spence The Bus Driver's Threnody 449 And Don't Forget the Fruit 450 Ann Spiers 4th of July: Bunker Trail 452 Eugenia Toledo Hidden Memory (Memoria escondida) 453 - 454 David Wagoner Kissing Cousins 455 Panic 456 Pleasant Dreams 457 Finn Wilcox Women 458 Deborah Brink Wohrmann The Rocking Chair 459 Carolyne Wright After the Explosion of Mount St. Helens, the Retiring Grade- School Teacher Goes for a Long Walk Through the Wheatlands 460

XVI Maya Jewell Zeller Tire Hut: Seaview, Washington 461 Facing 462

Wyoming Constance Brewer Downwind 464 Patricia Frolander Wringer Washer 465 New York to Deadwood 465 H. L. Hix Summer 466 Fall 466 Winter 467 Spring 467 Bo Moore Dry Land 468 Pretty 468 Forecast 468 Kate Northrop Night Drive 469 Winter Prairie 470 Tom Rea The Black and the Dazzle 471 David Romtvedt Twenty-Five Vultures 472 Artificial Breeze 474 Bending Elbows 475 Robert Roripaugh The Old Horseshoer 476 Dawn Senior-Trask Clues 477 Silly-Day 478

Books of Poetry by Poets in This Anthology 480

Acknowledgements 499

Photo Credits 507

To Purchase Books by Poets in this Anthology 508

Some Poetry Sites on the Internet 512

Index of Authors and Poem Titles 513

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