Rain Scald: Poems

by Tacey M. Atsitty

Overview

In this innovative debut collection, Tacey M. Atsitty employs traditional, lyric, and experimental verse to create an intricate landscape she invites readers to explore. Presented in three sections, Tséyi', Gorge Dweller, and Tóhee', the poems negotiate between belief and doubt, self and family, and interior and exterior landscapes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826358677
Publisher:	University of New Mexico Press
Publication date:	02/15/2018
Series:	Mary Burritt Christiansen Poetry Series
Pages:	88
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.20(d)

About the Author

Tacey M. Atsitty is the author of the chapbook Amenorrhea. Her poetry has been widely published in journals and anthologies. Atsitty is Diné of the Sleep Rock People, born for the Tangle People.

Table of Contents

Tséyi'

Snake White, Owl White 3

Ach'íí' 4

Sunbeam 8

Rising Song, Elegy 9

Calico Prints 10

Elegy for Yucca Fruit Woman 11

Vail Her Stallion 13

Playground at Sunset 14

His Women 17

Plum-to-Plum 19

In Dishwater 20

Alternate Sunrise 21

Stem Water 22

Salt Lick 25

When Water Came to Me 26

Gorge Dweller

Rain Scald 29

Recurrent 30

Burial Waves 32

Nightsong 34

At the Rim of Thought 36

Flight Bridge 38

Bone Spur 39

Awakening Song 40

To Gorge 42

Downpour 43

Marked 45

On Receiving Revelation 46

Tóhee'

In Strips 51

At Evil Canyon 52

Leaping Ridge 53

Monster Who Kicks People Down the Cliff 54

Chokecherry Canyon 55

Anasazi 56

Mothway 57

S. Influenza-In Code 59

Paper Water 60

Sons of Carlisle 61

Dilute 63

Flint Boys, Sky Map 65

Hand Trembler 66

Razed 67

Evensong 69

Notes 73

Acknowledgments 77

Editorial Reviews

"Her keen ear for language makes the poems sing, occasionally in formal verse or even rhyme. These poems demand multiple readings."—15 Bytes Book Award for Poetry

"She sprinkles her poems with hyphenated word pairs that spice the poems in meaningful ways. . . . She has built a solid foundation to continue growing and producing reputable work such as this volume."—Roundup

"Rain Scald is an invitation to witness the familiar and unfamiliar terrain of what is sacred of life and death. . . . It is a collection that the reader will read more than once, each time diving farther into the gorge, each time standing in the rain a bit longer."—Concho River Review

"Her work is perhaps more profoundly grounded in Western landscapes, histories, and traditions than any other work you might pick up, whether Native or non-Native."—Writing Westward Podcast

"The silence surrounding trauma lies at the heart of Rain Scald, the shattering first collection by poet Tacey M. Atsitty."—Broadsided Press

"Surprising inventions of syntax and subjectivity serve a poetics at once visionary and imbued with the grit of existence. Tempered by hardship, seasoned with experience, this brilliant book witnesses a world Atsitty knows intimately and, in doing so, offers courageous testimony to suffering and spiritual resilience. I can think of no poet writing today whose work is more gorgeous or moving, no one who brings more heart or brains to the page."—Alice Fulton, author of Barely Composed: Poems

"'How long had my hands / been scalded in dishwater, grabbing for knives or forks,' writes Tacey Atsitty in this marvelous debut collection. Steeped in Navajo culture, Tacey Atsitty writes a poetry where rain, expected to be nourishing, is also a torrent, burning with sensation. Her poetry, formally resourceful and resonant, suffuses elegy with insight and prayer."—Arthur Sze, author of Compass Rose

"Narrative, lyric, and deeply human, Tacey's poems open to a world of folk and spirit where so few of us have ever dwelled. Her songs waste no words. Her stories are the stuff of hallowed ground. It is with a wonder of word and image that she shows us the strength and beauty of the Diyin Diné'é way."—Jim Barnes, author of The American Book of the Dead: Poems

From the Publisher