EARTH ALWAYS ENDURES

Paired with Curtis's classic photographs, these sacred chants capture the heartbeat of a people. An Apache prays ``for people to smile as long as I live''; a Yokuta, to be ``one with this world!''; and a Kiowa asks for universal charity—``Because I am poor,/I pray for every living creature.'' There are songs about birth and old age; songs for young warrior and those who yearn for their safe return; songs about living with joy (``The sky/loves to hear me'') and courage (``I am simply on the earth./Need I be afraid?''); and a powerful ode, composed during a Civil Warera massacre, about dying with dignity (``Nothing lives long/Nothing lives long/Nothing lives long/Only the earth and the mountains''). Philip (Odin's Family, p. 1054, etc.) arranges the selections—from a variety of traditions, among them Navajo, Pima, Chippewa, Cheyenne, Pawnee, Omaha, Passamaquoddy, Osage—in a circle, taking readers from dawn to dawn. Timeless poems, haunting photographs—a whole world to ponder. (Poetry. 10+)