Leslie Marmon Silko’s nightmare vision of environmental destruction is being hastened by the Trump administration.
Tag Archives: Leslie Marmon Silko
Climate Change Witchery
Hummingbirds and the Life Force
Monday Happiness is watching hummingbirds feed. The two that visit our feeders—which is to say, the one that feeds and the one that gets chased away—are resplendent in their shimmering colors, reminding me of the hummingbird in Leslie Marmon Silko’s novel Ceremony. As the Laguna Pueblo author sees it, hummingbirds have a direct connection to the […]
Homer’s Warning about Revenge Killings
What will it take to bring peace between police and black communities? Homer has a vision of such a truce at the end of “The Odyssey” but it may not be realistic.
Fencing People Out & Spiritual Desolation
In her novel “Ceremony,” Leslie Marmon Silko has a vision of spiritual desolation caused when we build fences to keep other people out.
Beauty Amidst the Refugee Heartbreak
Adam Zagajewski’s beautiful poem “Try to Praise the Mutilated World” is particularly relevant at the moment with the tragedy of the Syrian refugees.
This Time Grendel Chose Umpqua
Every time there is another mass killing, this time at Umpqua Community College, I turn to “Beowulf.” Few works understand such violence as well as this medieval Anglo-Saxon epic.
Milton’s Satan Invades Charleston
Once again, light has attracted darkness in America with the Charleston church killings. John Milton describes how this dynamic works in “Paradise Lost” and Leslie Marmon Silko does so as well in “Ceremony.”

