Almost Ashore

By Gerald Vizenor b. 1934 Gerald Vizenor

winter sea

over my shoes

shadows

and bright

round stones

at san gregorio

every wave

turns a season

forests adrift

empty shells

memory of fire

so faraway

in the mountains

and canyons

silent pools

raise my faces

by early tide

slight my hand

shoulders

almost ashore

light breaks

over the plovers

certain steps

my traces

blood, bone, stone

turn natural

and heavy waves

rush the sand

Gerald Vizenor, “Almost Ashore” from Almost Ashore. Copyright © 2006 by Gerald Vizenor. Reprinted by permission of Salt Publishing.

Source: Almost Ashore (Salt Publishing, 2006)

Biography

Gerald Vizenor is of Anishinabe heritage and an enrolled member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, White Earth Reservation. Vizenor was born in Minnesota, but before he turned two years old his father was murdered. He was subsequently raised by his Swedish American mother, Anishinabe grandmother, and extended family in Minneapolis and on the White Earth Reservation.

The author of more than 20 books of nonfiction, fiction, and . . .

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