Tuesday, 7:00 p.m.
"It is the land that is the true protagonist in her work," we were told as Linda Hogan was introduced. "She sat down to write a book about pain and she wrote a book about love."
Hogan has been integral to the development of contemporary Native American poetry and she is concerned with traditional indigeneous views of and relationship to the land, animals, and plants. In addition to poetry, she writes fiction, plays, and essays. Hogan has been an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder since 1989.
"I don't mean this in an angry way," Hogan said, "but I can't help noticing that all the white men I showed up to hear this morning didn't show up to hear a Native writer tonight."
"There were so many women warriors and horse-women...."
"Vote for me for President. Things would be a lot better than they are now...."
"Already he was a member of the tribe of crossing...."
"Our town is Idledale. We call it Idledust because of the dust...."
"It's like 'why do the dishes?' You'll just have to do them again in two weeks...."
"I have been working on an essay about horse manure and its beauties...."
"This is about a mountain lion but it's about more than a mountain lion...."
"That sound of velcro, one of the powerful new inventions...."
"I love the creation stories from all the different traditions.... Some creation stories are about authority and some about cooperation...."
"I like to work on a lot of different projects at the same time...."
"There is something about horses and people and the relationship between them...."
In the "Deer Dance," the man danced "until he was more than human...."
"Where the deer danced, as my old grandfather said, water came up from the ground."
Hogan quoted Chief Seattle: "My people will be among you even when we are all dead...."
"Those little blue butterflies you see in the spring, those are the ants' butterflies. The ants take care of them underground...."
"He thought the colony of ants shared a soul...."
"He lost everything because he couldn't learn to think like an ant...."
"We align our consciousness with the rest of the world. That's how we know what to write...."
"... as if the abyss is beautiful...."
"To the east is the mountain with sweet, sweet rain...."
"... as if the signature of God is written on the small and unloved...."
"... the unpraised eyes of rats and skunks, not vermin but shine...."
"My brother, who is a runner and I am not, couldn't keep up with me. That's how excited I was...."
"There are times I long for the beginning...."
"Welcome, they said to their visitors. We will feed you. We will care for you...."
"I had an experience with a humpback whale. And that transformed me...."
"How many whales can you kill for science?"
"It is important that we pay attention to every small thing...."
"... that dark and secret location where creation took place...."
"You are the result of the love of thousands...."
"I hate this... everywhere I step I cause destruction...."
"I'm pretty disciplined. I get up in the morning and write for three hours, then I do other things...."
"If I get a chance, I'll write any time. I don't need inspiration. I have to make notes or I forget. If I waited for inspiration or the perfect moment, it would never happen for me."
Of the main character in the novel she's working on: "I could hear her. It was like she was talking to me...."
"The sheriff let a man out of jail to kill people and he had the perfect alibi...."
On the deaths of 500-600 native women in Canada: "There really is a conspiracy of murderers, and some of it is the law...."
"I think nature is fighting back, but that's only my theory. I think nature finds its way...."
"I don't know if nature as a whole is one consciousness but I do know the earth is one system."
In the novel she's working on, "the people even have a language I've never heard before, and I just write it down...."
"Dolphins and whales don't like humans who intellectualize all the time. They like humans who live in their hearts...."
"You can't write from your head. You have to write from your heart. You can edit from your head...."
"So the crows moved over to my house so they could pick through the horse manure..."
"Go home beautifully," she said at the end.
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