Description: The annual seasons and rhythms of the desert are a dance of clouds, wind, rain, and flood—water in it roles from bringer of food to destroyer of life. The critical importance of weather and climate to native desert peoples is reflected with grace and power in this personal collection of poems, the first written creative work by an individual in O'odham and a landmark in Native American literature. Poet Ofelia Zepeda centers these poems on her own experiences growing up in a Tohono O'odham family, where desert climate profoundly influenced daily life, and on her perceptions as a contemporary Tohono O'odham woman. One section of poems deals with contemporary life, personal history, and the meeting of old and new ways. Another section deals with winter and human responses to light and air. The final group of poems focuses on the nature of women, the ocean, and the way the past relationship of the O'odham with the ocean may still inform present day experience. These fine poems will give the outside reader a rich insight into the daily life of the Tohono O'odham people.
Description: This audio CD is a bilingual collection in O'odham and English. All of the poems originated in the O'odham language. Written Tohono O'odham is a relatively new phenomenon; For the most part, the Tohono O'odham language is still an oral language.
The poems in this collection include pieces about basic phenomena of the desert such as rains and rainclouds and how some O'odham respond to the infrequency of these events. Some pieces are about the poverty that some O'odham people think they have--those that wish to be like others who have satin blouses, or who mask themselves in pretty scents. Still other poems are about desert animals and how I have seen them behave...finally, I write about journeys, again relying on O'odham oral tradition, where the journey is an important event.
