Where Clouds Are Formed

Description

Ofelia Zepeda is a Native American poet who possesses a kind of double vision.
She sees the contemporary world through her own highly observant eyes and, at the same time, through the eyes of her Tohono Oaodham ancestors.
Seeing this way infuses her poetry with a resonance and depth that makes it a delight to readaand re-read.
Zepeda is as clear-eyed about the past as she is about the present.
She recalls waiting for the school bus on a cold morning inside her fatheras truck, listening to the sounds of the engine, the windshield wipers, and the asoft rain on the hood.a She remembers celebrating Mass on the acold dirt floor of the Winter Solstice.a In the present, she sees both the frustration and the humor in a woman she observes trying to eat pancakes with one hand while her other resides in a cast: aWatching her, I realize eating pancakes is a two-handed job.a Whatever she sees, she filters through her second set of eyes, which keep the past always present.
She tells of traveling to Waw Giwulig, the most sacred mountain of the Tohono Oaodham, to ask for blessingsaand forgiveness.
She writes that one should always bring music to the mountains, aso they are generous with the summer rains.a And, still, athe scent of burning wood / holds the strongest memory.
/ Mesquite, cedar, piAon, juniper, ….
/ we catch the scent of burning wood; / we are brought home.a It is a joy to see the world afresh through her eyes.