Cell traffic : new and selected poems / Heid E. Erdrich.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Erdrich, Heid E. (Heid Ellen)

Series:

Sun tracks ; v. 70.

Sun tracks: an American Indian literary series ; v. 70

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American poetry.

Physical Description:

xviii, 203 p.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Tucson, Az. : University of Arizona Press, c2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"Cell Traffic "presents new poems and uncollected prose poetry along with selected work from award-winning poet Heid Erdrich's three previous poetry collections. Erdrich's new work reflects her continuing concerns with the tensions between science and tradition, between spirit and body. She finds surprising common ground while exploring indigenous experience in multifaceted ways: personal, familial, biological, and cultural. The title, "Cell Traffic," suggests motion and Erdrich considers multiple movements-cellular transfer, the traffic of DNA through body parts and bones, "migration" through procreation, and the larger "movements" of indigenousness and ancestral inheritance. Erdrich's wry sensibility, sly wit, and keenly insightful mind have earned her a loyal following. Her point of view is always slightly off center, and this lends a particular freshness to her poetry. The debunking and debating of the science of origins is one of Erdrich's focal subjects. In this collection, she turns her observational eye to the search for a genetic mother of humanity, forensic anthropology's quest for the oldest known bones, and online offers of genetic testing. But her interests are not limited to science. She freely admits popular culture into her purview as well, referencing sci-fi television series and Internet pop-up ads.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

The Poetry of Participation: On the Work of Heid Erdrich, Dean Rader

Acknowledgments

I. Chimeras

Thrifty Gene, Lucky Gene

Brain Scan

Mitochondrial Eve

DNA Tribes

Morrisseau Creatures from the Woodland Painters School

Microchimerism

Define Chimera

Now, What Is She?

Blood Chimera

II. Cannibals

Fur Trade Tokens

Now, Where Was She?

Wiindigo Pity

Own Your Own: Cellular Changes

Long Pig

The Love that Dares

Seven Mothers

Tick Check

Bestial

Menu

Embodied

III. Tourists

Indigenous Elvis at the Airport

When They Find Each Other on Facebook

Love Plot

Little Souvenirs from the DNA Trading Post

Thoughts of Kids Interrupt My Work

Own Your Own: The Papergirl

Just off the Highway

Quiet Cupboard

IV. Traffickers

Upon Hearing of the Mormon DNA Collection

Now, Where Was She, Too?

Interrogated Self

Traffic

Sleeper

Again, Today

Cold Climate

Two Sides

Paint These Streets

Uncollected Work (2006-2011)

I. Prose Poems and Translations

The Shapes We Make

The Shapes We Make /Ezhi-Zhibiigeyaang /The Way We Write

How We Walk

How We Walk /Ezhi-bimoseyaang /The Way We Walk

How We Talk

How We Talk /Ezhi-gaagiigidoyaang /The Way We Talk

How We Eat

How We Eat /Ezhi-wiisiniyaang /The Way We Eat

II. Prose Poems

Preeminent Gooseberry Bakwezhiigan

In House

Dancer Origin Story

Dancer in Twin Voices

Utopia Hawk

My Fetal Beatles or an Embryonic Education in Commune

Indigenous Foods Allowed in Utopia

Red Vines: Lines for Deloria

III. Prose Originals

Selected Work (1997-2008)

from 'National Monuments' (2008)

Guidelines for the Treatment of Sacred Objects

Black and White Monument, Photo Circa 1977

Grand Portage

Post-Barbarian

Some Elsie.

In Search of Jane's Grave

The Theft Outright

Elsie Drops Off the Dry Cleaning

Butter Maiden and Maize Girl Survive Death Leap

The Lone Reader and Tonchee Fistfight in Pages

Full Bodied Semi-Sestina

Body Works

Kennewick Man Tells All

Kennewick Man Attempts Cyber-date

Kennewick Man Swims Laps

Prisoner No. 280

Vial

Girl of Lightning

from 'The Mother's Tongue' (2005)

Offering: Words

She Dances

Stung

This Body, The River

The Deep

Craving, First Month

Offering: The Child

Kookum

First Rice

What Pregnant Is Like

Young Poets with Roman Noses

Another Touch

Nesting Dolls

Craving Release

Sisters Stay On the Other Side

New Born

Offering: Ojibwe

Craving: Bitter Root

Twin Bugs

Vermillion Hands Petroglyph

Our Words Are Not Our Own

Poem for Our Ojibwe Names

In the Belly

Changeling

Remedy

Wiisah kote: The Burnt Wood People

Basswood

The Good Woman

from 'Fishing for Myth' (1997)

True Myth

Breaking and Entering

The Red River of the North

Oxbow

Rich Hour

One Girl

Human Map

The Pond

Fat in America

That Green Night

Flickers

Sex in the Desert

Hopi Prophet Chooses a Pop

Wearing Indian Jewelry

Turtle Rattle

Translation

Animoosh

TV News: Detox Closed

The Visible Woman

Future Debris

Sense

Notes.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

1-299-27653-9

0-8165-9974-2

OCLC:

830085681