[Review of] Linda Hogan. Seeing Through the Sun

Authors

Victor Macaruso

Orginal Publication Date

1986

Journal Title

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

Volume

6

Issue

ess/vol6/iss1

First Page

38

Last Page

39

Abstract

A Chickasaw of mixed blood who grew up in Oklahoma and now lives in Minnesota, Linda Hogan writes spare poems pulled skin tight over the bones and blood and flesh they contain. She does not exploit her Native American experience to make poems; she does not need to. Her references to "the old sky woman," "black corn dolls," and "evicted grandmothers," who walk " wrapped in trade cloth," are integrated into the sense of life which fills her poems; yet the tensions which come from having inherited two distinct traditions are not ignored: In my left pocket a Chickasaw hand rests on the bone of the pelvis. In my right pocket a white hand. Don't worry. It's mine. Girl, I say it's dangerous to be a woman of two countries. You've got your hands in the dark of two empty pockets.

Rights

Copyright, ​©EES, The National Association for Ethnic Studies, 1986