Cicadas

“Cicadas, New and Selected Poems by Roberta Hill is a definitive collection from one of America’s best poets of her generation. These fine poems by Roberta Hill make a visionary trail through years of history and personal myth. Hill's poetry has always challenged me to leap deeper into their finely spun mythical-real world. They stun me. The classic “Star Quilt” opens the book and reminds us that the overall form of the collection is like a star quilt. Each poem, makes a shape in the pattern, each pulse of line, image and light give impetus to the form. Grief and joy define the star within us, of us. The poem “Philadelphia Flowers” is the heart of the collection. It is a call to compassion and deserves to be an American classic. And finally the new poems, like cicadas, have climbed up earth through years of yearning, to shed their husks and sing. And what a journey! This is one of the most important collections of contemporary indigenous American poetry.”--Joy Harjo, author of Crazy Brave

“Through cosmic imagery of the ordinary, Cicadas: New & Selected Poems by Roberta Hill are the journey that sweeps us across the Nation's geography from birth to the edge of silence and back.  Roberta’s poems share with us a quiet intimacy that transforms the predictable into a raw, yet delicate feast of emotions, for all of us to sample.”--John Francis, author of The Ragged Edge of Silence: Finding Peace in a Noisy World

“Roberta Hill continues to lead us through her uniquely Oneida borne and traveler-graced poetic. Her lines lead us, too, carry our burdens, release us, remind us to lift ourselves, sing elegies for those we lose, bring us altitudes, summits, winged entry, then cradles our looming falls. Cicadas, a monumental selected works re-establishes Star Quilt memories, dreams back Philadelphia Flowers, fastens time with an all new Cicadas planting, serves up a reminder of this early leader and forms her sure presence in the fertile field. Placing promise and gifting us to return to her, here, Hill, instills, 'We pulse with paradox,//with sweet darkness and fire that can move//through distances, gauged by more than eyes alone.//There is no edge, but always room to love.' Thoroughly guiding us back home to her ardent work. Phenomenally, so.”--Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, author of Blood Run & Off-Season City Pipe

“Time found its voice in the poetry of Roberta Hill. A powerful voice with the wings of Love and Death. A voice with the colors of ancient everyday landscapes and the colors of luminous dreams. Cicadas, New and Selected Poetry by Roberta Hill is a must have, a must read and a must share with everyone.”--Moisés Villavicencio Barras, author of Light of All Times

“'I'm not first/ to go claim as kin/ the cicada.' In these poems spanning thirty years Roberta Hill chronicles the things that matter: family, the wisdom of animals, and the travails of 'this dancing earth.' In Cicadas, we watch the poet's journey from the landscapes of her youth to the hard-earned wisdom of the present. Ultimately Hill's poems are rife with the music that comes rising out of the soil. In short, Cicadas sings.”--Amy Quan Barry, author of Water Puppets

“With elegant rich imagery, these poems root deep in the memory of those who’ve gone before. Roberta Hill re-gifts us with the 'grace we lost' and reconnects us to our continuous presence on this continent, where we look out from the windows of these poems, in awe of the beauty unraveling before us.”--Sherwin Bitsui, author of Flood Song 

“Cicadas, New and Selected Poems by Roberta Hill is a definitive collection from one of America’s best poets of her generation. These fine poems by Roberta Hill make a visionary trail through years of history and personal myth. Hill's poetry has always challenged me to leap deeper into their finely spun mythical-real world. They stun me. The classic “Star Quilt” opens the book and reminds us that the overall form of the collection is like a star quilt. Each poem, makes a shape in the pattern, each pulse of line, image and light give impetus to the form. Grief and joy define the star within us, of us. The poem “Philadelphia Flowers” is the heart of the collection. It is a call to compassion and deserves to be an American classic. And finally the new poems, like cicadas, have climbed up earth through years of yearning, to shed their husks and sing. And what a journey! This is one of the most important collections of contemporary indigenous American poetry.”--Joy Harjo, author of Crazy Brave

“Through cosmic imagery of the ordinary, Cicadas: New & Selected Poems by Roberta Hill are the journey that sweeps us across the Nation's geography from birth to the edge of silence and back.  Roberta’s poems share with us a quiet intimacy that transforms the predictable into a raw, yet delicate feast of emotions, for all of us to sample.”--John Francis, author of The Ragged Edge of Silence: Finding Peace in a Noisy World

“Roberta Hill continues to lead us through her uniquely Oneida borne and traveler-graced poetic. Her lines lead us, too, carry our burdens, release us, remind us to lift ourselves, sing elegies for those we lose, bring us altitudes, summits, winged entry, then cradles our looming falls. Cicadas, a monumental selected works re-establishes Star Quilt memories, dreams back Philadelphia Flowers, fastens time with an all new Cicadas planting, serves up a reminder of this early leader and forms her sure presence in the fertile field. Placing promise and gifting us to return to her, here, Hill, instills, 'We pulse with paradox,//with sweet darkness and fire that can move//through distances, gauged by more than eyes alone.//There is no edge, but always room to love.' Thoroughly guiding us back home to her ardent work. Phenomenally, so.”--Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, author of Blood Run & Off-Season City Pipe

“Time found its voice in the poetry of Roberta Hill. A powerful voice with the wings of Love and Death. A voice with the colors of ancient everyday landscapes and the colors of luminous dreams. Cicadas, New and Selected Poetry by Roberta Hill is a must have, a must read and a must share with everyone.”--Moisés Villavicencio Barras, author of Light of All Times

“'I'm not first/ to go claim as kin/ the cicada.' In these poems spanning thirty years Roberta Hill chronicles the things that matter: family, the wisdom of animals, and the travails of 'this dancing earth.' In Cicadas, we watch the poet's journey from the landscapes of her youth to the hard-earned wisdom of the present. Ultimately Hill's poems are rife with the music that comes rising out of the soil. In short, Cicadas sings.”--Amy Quan Barry, author of Water Puppets

“With elegant rich imagery, these poems root deep in the memory of those who’ve gone before. Roberta Hill re-gifts us with the 'grace we lost' and reconnects us to our continuous presence on this continent, where we look out from the windows of these poems, in awe of the beauty unraveling before us.”--Sherwin Bitsui, author of Flood Song