Washing My Mother's Body: A Ceremony for Grief stories The language of the scientists

The language of the scientists that Erdrich sometimes quotes in epigraphs seems reductive in comparison to the richness of tone and meaning that these poems— filled with puns

and jets across the country and across the ocean to tell stories

and truth-telling

she joined the new movement of tribal pride sweeping Native American communities in the sixties and seventies

Sasakamoose played against such legends as Gordie Howe

Washing My Mother's Body: A Ceremony for Grief stories The language of the scientistsA beautifully illustrated edition of Poet Laureate Joy Harjo's poem "Washing My Mother's Body," which offers a way through grief when the loss appears unbearable. As I wash my mother's face, I tell her how beautiful she is, how brave, how her beauty and bravery live on in her grandchildren. Her face is relaxed, peaceful. Her earth memory body has not left yet, but when I see her the next day, embalmed and in the casket in the funeral home, it will be