The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

She talks about her feelings of alienation while in the city, of
how difficult it is for her to understand the thinking that city
people engage in, and writes, “Yesterday a woman looked at the
violets in the grass and said, ‘How lovely,’ and then she walked
on them.” After making this observation, she continues her
remarks on the Oppenheimer television show, which she
concludes with a quote from one of the men who was
interviewed for the program: “‘I never thought we would flatten
all those people.’” Then, Hogan observes, “And he smiled. That
is why I howled and cried.” 10
The unity of Hogan’s vision is vitalized by her determination
to articulate that vision accurately. In a series of recent poems
she gives voice to her deep, intensely personal sense of the exact
measure of global destruction we all face. In one of the poems,
“The Women Speaking,” she articulates her fear, rage, and
celebration of love within the spectre of annihilating light. The
women are speaking, for in her work women signify what is
connected:
And the Russian women in blue towns
are speaking.
The flower-dressed women of Indian
women in orange tents,
dark women
of the Americas
who sit beside fires,
have studied the palms of their hands
and walk toward one another.
It’s time to bless this ground.
Their hair is on fire
from the sun
and they walk narrow roads