Wanting to Say Things: The Power of Stories
AN ANTHOLOGY OF NATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURE
"My Father's Song" by Simon Ortiz
Wanting to say things,
I miss my father tonight.
His voice, the slight catch,
the depth from his thin chest,
the tremble of emotion
in something he has just said
to his son, his song:
We planted corn one spring at Acu-
we planted several times
but this one particular time
I remember the soft damp sand
in my hand.
My father had stopped at one point
to show me an overturned furrow;
the plowshare had unearthed
the burrow nest of a mouse
in the soft moist sand.
Very gently, he scooped tiny pink animals
into the palm of his hand
and told me to touch them.
We took them to the edge
of the field and put them in the shade
of a sand moist clod.
I remember the very softness
of cool and warm sand and tiny alive mice
and my father saying things.
Writing Prompts
Simon Ortiz masterfully employs tactile imagery, such as “soft damp sand / in my hand,” “very gently, he scooped tiny pink animals,” and “softness / of cool and warm sand and tiny alive mice.”
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Recall a memory of your childhood. Describe the memory using the sense of touch. For example, a memory of going to the park might have details such as damp grass, sweaty hands gripping monkey bars, static on plastic slides, and pebbles getting inside shoes.
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Imitate Ortiz’s poem using a different sensory mode (sight, sound, smell, or taste).
Editor's Commentary
The speaker of this poem, despite stating, “Wanting to say things, / I miss
my father tonight,” does not actually say anything using direct speech, but rather uses his father’s song to say it. A story (in this case, in the form of a song) can depict emotions more vividly and powerfully than if the speaker simply describes how much he misses his father.
There are multiple ways to read the father’s song, which starts at the second stanza. In the first way, the father’s “song” is not lyrics that he sings, but his actions—planting corn, unearthing burrows, and gently scooping tiny mice. The speaker is recounting his experiences with his father, which are sweet and melodic as a song. This interpretation shows that actions speak louder than words, and life is a living story to be sung.
In another interpretation, the second through fifth stanzas are a literal song that the speaker’s father has sung in the past. The speaker remembers the lyrics to the song as well as his father’s “tremble of emotion” when he sang it. This places emphasis on the transmission of oral tradition, as seen by how the father passes down the song to his son, and creation of life from memories.
