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It's with great pleasure that
I introduced tonight's readers

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at the Poetry Center--

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Tohono O'odham poet, Ofelia
Zepeda, and Diné poet,

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Luci Tapahonso.

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I would like to thank Gail
Browne, the Poetry Center's

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director, for giving
me this opportunity.

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I will elaborate on
their career separately.

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But first, I want to say
a little about them both,

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comparing and contrasting just
one aspect of their work--

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the theme of listening prevalent
in their new publications--

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to give you some idea about
what you will be hearing

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and to emphasize why
this work is important.

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In poem after poem, both
Zepeda and Tapahonso

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are alive to the
sounds of the world.

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And it is one of the crucial
strengths of their poetry

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that they both seek
to find an equivalent

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for this perception
in the images

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and sounds their poems present.

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Here's a fragment from "The
Place Where Clouds Are Formed"

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by Zepeda.

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"My father's truck
is warm inside,

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having been at
work since 4:00 AM.

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The sound of the
engine is soothing,

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heater working to capacity.

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Inside the truck we are silent.

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We don't need language.

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We listen to the regular
hum of the engine, rhythm

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of the windshield wipers,
soft rain on the hood."

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It's a poem of communion
and familial warmth,

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a cocoon that allows,
and even celebrates,

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the act of being together
as an act of listening

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born in silence.

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And here's a fragment from "Late
This Morning" by Tapahonso.

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"Late this morning, a coyote
howled somewhere nearby.

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Its prolonged tenor echoed in
the light, silent rainfall.

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I stopped writing and listened.

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Birds began to chatter,
then the neighbor's dog

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took up the confused
resonance of the morning.

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'What is wrong,' I said and
stepped outside to listen."

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A different situation
is described.

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The poet is alone, writing on a
rainy morning, when her work is

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interrupted by the unforeseen,
and unseen, coyote whose

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howl breaks into the
comforting silence of the rain

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sparking a sense of
dissonance in the neighborhood

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and at least, momentarily,
in the poet herself.

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Yet in both poems,
the writers are

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deeply aware of the
soundscapes that

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shape the world around them
in subtle and rhythmic ways.

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The poems of both these
two fine poets record

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not only the sounds of the
various tongues they speak--

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Navajo and English
in Tapahonso's work,

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Tohono O'odham and English
in Zepeda's-- but how these

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languages are used,
how they are wielded.

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Many of their poems
capture something

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of how people speak together
emphasizing the immediacy

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and power of human speech
to move us sometimes

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in ways that provoke
discomfort, pain, and enemy.

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For example, when a friend
of Tapahonso's tells her

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in the poem, "That American
Flag," that she won't quote

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"buy anything with
the flag on it,"

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the poet is flooded
with associations

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that the friend would
probably never guess.

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The poem becomes an anthem
to Navajo resilience

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as, in the poet's memory of
memory and in imagination,

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the Diné were marched from their
beloved Dinétah to Fort Sumner

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in Eastern New Mexico in 1864.

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During this ordeal, the
women weave the colors

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of the American flag into
their blankets, revising

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the meaning of those
colors, and, in doing so,

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helping the people
survive a terrible moment

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in their history.

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Similarly, Zepeda
argues silently

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with an officious
bureaucrat who, in the poem,

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"Birth Witness," tells her
that the poet needs something

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more than her quote
"baptismal certificate"

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to verify her birth.

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She'll need a witness.

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The first witness is
the poet's mother,

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but the poet finds it
impossible to explain this

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to the official.

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Like Tapahonso, Zepeda
relies on the work of memory

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and imagination to explore all
the myriad witnesses to her

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birth, weaving in her
mother's reminiscences,

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trying to know what
she cannot know.

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Who, besides her mother,
was present at her birth?

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The poem does much
more than this, though.

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It becomes a comment on the
various registers of language,

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on what can be
spoken, and on how

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it should be spoken, to
whom, why, on what occasion,

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for what purpose.

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Both Luci Tapahonso
and Ofelia Zepeda

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have written poems of
subtlety and strength

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exploring the intersections
of culture and language,

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the merging of the
political and the personal,

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and recording the magic and
potency of ordinary moments.

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They are poets who are alive
to the seen and the unseen, to

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what is known through the
intellect and the senses,

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through perception,
through grounded belief.

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Their poems and stories
are songs and prayers

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that help restore balance
and beauty to our lives.

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They remind us that
we are not alone,

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that a loving presence
remains all about us,

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and that we owe the
creator, or creators,

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reciprocal love, respect,
and energetic appreciation.

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We owe this to one another too.

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These poets remind
us to look for what

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is holy in all creation.

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This is our work
as human beings.

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