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krislea's review against another edition
4.0
Lines that make you consider how many nonliving things exist between yourself and the living earth really put things in perspective
jennifermreads's review against another edition
3.0
Anytime a Native American artist, regardless of medium, can be raised up to remind us of history, culture, and loss, it needs to be celebrated. For that, I appreciate the poems in this book. A culture that revered Mother Nature and the Earth cringes as our planet falls to pieces. N. Scott Momaday encapsulates the hurt and misery in just a few pages. His cadence came through in my brain as I felt like I was sitting in front of a Native American storyteller, listening to these words rather than reading them off the page.
All reading is personal and all books affect readers in different ways. What works for me may not work for the next reader. When it comes to the poetic form, I am especially “poetry picky.” Every time I say “I don’t like poetry,” my mom is right there to remind me of my love & passion for Shakespeare, my unsated thirst for Robert Frost, my glee & giddiness when I grab a book of Shel Silverstein’s poems, and the overwhelming emotion I get each time I read Maya Angelou. {Note: Add Amanda Gorman to this list now. Holy cow, what a powerful inauguration poem.} So, I just need to train my brain: do not say “don’t like” instead say “picky on my poetry preferences.” This collection? Not a preference. Important words, yes. But I do not think they will have the staying power, with me, that others words do.
All reading is personal and all books affect readers in different ways. What works for me may not work for the next reader. When it comes to the poetic form, I am especially “poetry picky.” Every time I say “I don’t like poetry,” my mom is right there to remind me of my love & passion for Shakespeare, my unsated thirst for Robert Frost, my glee & giddiness when I grab a book of Shel Silverstein’s poems, and the overwhelming emotion I get each time I read Maya Angelou. {Note: Add Amanda Gorman to this list now. Holy cow, what a powerful inauguration poem.} So, I just need to train my brain: do not say “don’t like” instead say “picky on my poetry preferences.” This collection? Not a preference. Important words, yes. But I do not think they will have the staying power, with me, that others words do.
osirismind's review against another edition
This helped me slow down and consider and appreciate the simple things in life.
lizardluvr's review against another edition
3.25
i read this thinking it was going to be poetry, and while it technically is it’s not what i expected or prefer. i feel like i’m missing something because to me it read mainly as a series of vignettes and reflections in prose without the typical linguistic creativity found in prose poetry. but maybe i’m just not the target audience.
moonbites's review against another edition
3.0
I mistakenly thought this was poetry, but it didn't feel like poetry to me. I think it is just as it describes on the cover, reflections, or musings. It's mainly about respecting the earth and Momaday reflecting on memories and giving us a peek into the Kiowa. I found a few parts of this particularly poignant when Momaday talks about the first humans and his descriptions of nature.
Overall it was a fine and quick read. I think I had expectations of it being something else. I wasn't let down by this book, but it didn't have a huge impact on me either. I think it's an important perspective on the treatment of the earth, but I think I am already weighed down with many messages to conserve mother nature that this wasn't read at the appropriate time in my life.
"I traveled on a great river through a canyon. The walls of the canyon were so old as to be timeless. There came a sunlit rain, and a double rainbow arched the river. There was mystery and meaning in my passage. I beheld things that others had beheld thousands of years ago. The earth is a place of wonder and beauty." pg 16
"Dragonfly is a throwback. His view of the world is ancient. It was fashioned in darkness by those who had no language, who were struggling in the agony of birth, the miracle of becoming human. Those ancients were bereft, but there was a spirit within them and they expressed their spirit by shaping images on the walls of a cave. They were in sacred relation with the animals they painted. In their profound art was the construction of a primitive belief, a faith in the essence of earth." pg 24
Overall it was a fine and quick read. I think I had expectations of it being something else. I wasn't let down by this book, but it didn't have a huge impact on me either. I think it's an important perspective on the treatment of the earth, but I think I am already weighed down with many messages to conserve mother nature that this wasn't read at the appropriate time in my life.