In the Presence of the Sun: Stories and Poems, 1961-1991
"In the Presence of the Sun presents 30 years of selected works by [N. Scott] Momaday, the well-known Southwest Native American novelist. His unadorned poetry, which recounts fables and rituals of the Kiowa nation, conveys the deep sense of place of the Native American oral tradition. Here are dream-songs about animals (bear, bison, terrapin) and life away from urban alienation, an imagined re-creation based on Billy the Kid, prose poems about Plains Shields (and a fascinating discussion of...
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In the Presence of the sun is a celebration of extraordinary works of extraordinary range. It is informed with wonder and delight, sorrow and joy, the evanescence of seasons and the persistence of the human spirit. It is a concentration of riches, a distillation of thirty years in which the creative impulse is defined, refined, and sustained. Here are the best expressions of a man who is intensely alive to the world and whose vision reaches to the horizon and beyond. Scott Momaday inhabits the element of language easily. He is at home there. He is a man made of words. A glorious testament to our Native American past, this book features over seventy poems, sixteen new stories about the great tribal shields that delve into the deeper meaning of legend, love and loss, as well as an entire section devoted to Billy the Kid. The words, poems, and stories are enhanced by Momaday's complementary images. His drawings are in turn fine, bold, provocative, and moving. Momaday's eye is penetrating, truly interpretive. His vision is original. He enables us to see in a way we have not seen before. Scott Momaday calls upon his Kiowa background to give us echoes of ancient oral tradition. His use of traditional English poetic forms is both fluent and exact. His voice is ancestral and contemporary, profoundly American and genuinely universal. Here, at his best, is one of the truly distinguished poets, storytellers, and artists of our time.
