Cedar Smoke on Abalone Mountain

By Norla Chee, 2001.

This collection of thirty-seven poems seamlessly weaves the spiritual with the daily and the present with the past. Chee’s poetry as song and story is a mix of Navajo, which is her cultural heritage, and the “Other,” as indicated by non-Navajo customs, ideas, and experiences. She utilizes this comparison to bring about a fuller and richer dimension of cultural vitality and an appreciation of different cultural legacies in vigorous relationship with each other.

49 pp.

$12 paper; ISBN 978-0-935626-55-7

Table of Contents

Introduction by Simon Ortiz
Following on Thunders Song
Some Drums Don't Dance
Tonto Is My White Name
A Damn Hot Day
Shi Buddy
Flute Wave
Interlock
Night Heat
Firewater Poems
Redbone Thrill
Jump Over the Moon
Blue Sky After a Cloud Day
Poet
Indian Telegraph
Warrior
Sunrise
Blessing Poem
Child Rising
Art and Healing
A Navajo Sing
Slip Back
An Exhibit Tells the History of Diné Women Weaving
The Time We Have
Anasazi Clay
Good-bye Honey, Hello Silver & Dust
Days Like Kittenheart
Beyond the Vision Quest
Far Ahead in the Past
Muddy Water (or building community)
Wagon Ride
Untitled
Deeper Than the Mountain
Gazing in Song
November Moonlight
Softly Speaking
Spirit Mountains
Eagles Being Born