Out There Somewhere (Sun Tracks)
Combining Native American history, personal confession and  social critique in a clear, conversational style, Ortiz tends to  avoid metaphor and elaborate language or fixed poetic  structures. The first of five sections centers on time spent in  diverse institutions: the academy, writers' colonies, various  academic conferences, jail and detox centers. In "Headlands  Journal," an essay that mixes poetry and prose, Ortiz begins  with a meditation on Native populations in prison, moves to tell  a story about three visiting Chinese artists and then by the end  of the essay addresses his anger when someone calls the Acoma  Pueblo language "foreign." The series "What Indians?," written  for the Venice Biennale, addresses with humor and anger the  control that the dominant culture has over Native American  self-representation: "Real or unreal. Real and or unreal.  They were made up. It didn't matter." Those who turn to Ortiz's  work for its mixture of insightful, no-nonsense political  analysis and poetry rooted in Acoma culture will be more  interested in the last three sections of the book. There are  numerous poems about the importance of the land and of the  continuing struggle to regain the land, such as "Telling and  Showing Her" and "Acoma Poems," printed in both the Acoma Pueblo  language and English. If, as in poems like "Beauty All Around: A  Moment on the Lakota Prairie," Ortiz moves too easily from the  sunset ("beauty all around me") to a series of questions about  cultural appropriation, this book still asks crucial questions  as much as it argues for beauty. (Mar. 14)Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.