Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Allen, Paula Gunn (Vol. 202) - Helen Jaskoski (essay date summer 1992)


Allen, Paula Gunn (Vol. 202) - Helen Jaskoski (essay date summer 1992)

Helen Jaskoski (essay date summer 1992)

SOURCE: Jaskoski, Helen. “Allen's ‘Grandmother’.” Explicator 50, no. 4 (summer 1992): 247-50.

[In the following essay, Jaskoski locates Allen's poem “Grandmother” within traditional Pueblo traditions and mythology.]

“GRANDMOTHER”

Out of her own body she pushed
silver thread, light, air
and carried it carefully on the dark, flying
where nothing moved.

Out of her body she extruded
shining wire, life, and wove the light
on the void.

From beyond time,
beyond oak trees and bright clear water flow,
she was given the work of weaving the strands
of her body, her pain, her vision
into creation, and the gift of having created,
to disappear.

After her
the women and the men weave blankets into tales of life,
memories of light and ladders,
infinity-eyes, and rain.
After her I sit on my laddered rain-bearing rug
and mend the tear with string.
...

[The entire page is 1644 words long]

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass