Blood Run
Copyright © 2006
by Allison Hedge Coke
Salt Publishing
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If William Blake were a twenty-first-century American Indian woman, he would be Hedge Coke. Like Blake
declaiming against soul-destroying "dark Satanic mills," Hedge Coke calls for us to recognize the
sanctity of ancestral land and to protect it, for "no human should dismantle prayer." The specific land
of which she speaks is a vast city built on the border of what is now Iowa and South Dakota. Home to as
many as 10,000 people, it is now partially obliterated by plows and desecrated by looters. In a series
of dramatic monologues, Hedge Coke animates the landscape and, indeed, the cosmos. Corn speaks, and
various mounds; the river speaks, and deer and stone. Even the looters speak, as do the skeletons they
remove for sale to medical schools. Blood Run is the setting for this long, dramatic sequence of
poems, but its subject is really the need to resanctify the world. The poet's voice is oracular,
deliberately disturbing and demanding. Hedge Coke's visionary long conclusion, "When the Animals Leave
This Place," defines the transformation of Earth that follows disasters and offers a sensuous solace as
well as a frightening prediction of what we may face as ecological change accelerates. —
Booklist
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Dog Road Woman
Copyright © 1997
by Allison Hedge Coke
Coffee House Press
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In her debut collection of poems, which received the American Book Award in 1998, Allison
Adelle Hedge Coke presents an autobiographical sketch of a contemporary mixed-blood
native life. These poems recount surviving diaspora, domestic violence, racism, and an
extraordinary number of challenges. By drawing upon a variety of poetic and prosaic
forms, Hedge Coke simulates and transforms the rhythms and sounds of her people. She
weaves the shapes and patterns of her heritage into a magnificent tapestry of prayer,
story, and song. Dog Road Woman is a sublime presentation of the strength, beauty, and
spirit of the nations. — from the publisher
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Off-Season City Pipe
Copyright © 2005
by Allison Hedge Coke
Coffee House Press
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In poems as beautiful in their telling as they are powerful in their ethos, poet and memoirist Hedge
Coke draws upon her background as a tobacco sharecropper, factory worker and fisherwoman, articulating
the stark contrast between a tradition of labor that instills pride and builds strong communities with
the modern-day reality of backbreaking work that fails to provide sustenance for the land or its people.
— from the pubisher
Hedge Coke's reputation rests on her memoirs concerned with her Native American heritage, such as the
searing and memorable Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer. Here she reveals another identity, as a poet of
the American worker — "cracker-packin' girls" and "fieldworkers and framers like me" —
in long-lined, conversational poems full of southern swing and storytelling zest. She captures the
lives of people struggling, sometimes failing like the zoned-out man in the Mission District who needs
a "Houdini mentality to stand," but also exulting in their strength, like the women who, "double-handed
/ popping apart plump green strings / fresh from leafy hills," can pint after pint of produce. Though
informed by the history of Indian struggle, the poems are set more in the city than on the reservation,
in places "the BIA forgot to watch." Anyone interested in the often silenced voices of America's working
poor will appreciate these poems. — Booklist
Hedge Coke unites American working-class experience with her Cherokee heritage in a sinewy lyricism
where exhaustion co-exists with the exultant. — The Pulse of the Twin Cities, May 12, 2005
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Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer
Copyright © 2004
by Allison Hedge Coke
University of Nebraska Press
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"A name creates life patterns," Allison Adelle Hedge Coke writes, "which form and shape a life; my
life, like my name, must have been formed many times over then handed to me to realize." Rock, Ghost,
Willow, Deer is Hedge Coke's narrative of that realization, the poet and writer's searching account
of her life as a mixed-blood woman coming of age off-reservation, yet deeply immersed in her Cherokee
and Huron heritage. In a style at once elliptical and achingly clear, Hedge Coke describes her
schizophrenic mother and the abuse that often overshadowed her childhood; the torments visited upon
her, the rape and physical violence; and those she inflicted on herself, the alcohol and drug abuse.
Yet she managed to survive with her dreams and her will, her sense of wonder and promise undiminished."
The title Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer refers to the life-revelations that brought Hedge Coke
through her trials, the melding of language and experience that has brought order to her life. In this
book, Hedge Coke shares the insights she has gathered along the way, insights that touch on broader
Native issues such as modern life in the diaspora; the threat of alcohol, drug abuse, and violence;
and the ongoing onslaught on self amid a complex, mixed heritage. — from the publisher
What I've always admired about Allison Hedge Coke's poetry is her astounding courage. And the ability
to seamlessly weave the tobacco fields of childhood with the stark plains and hills of South Dakota.
And more than all that — the shining spirit of compassion. — Joy Harjo
Telling is one thing. That's what we do when we tell stories. But coming to know by experience and
telling about it is another. Allison Hedge Coke in Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer shows us "knowing"
in her unique and wonderful way. — Simon J Ortiz
This is a harrowing book. Statistics about alcoholism and family violence among dispossessed American
Indians fail to show the sheer human suffering it causes and the personal heroism of those who struggle
through to an integrated life. Hedge Coke was endowed by her Cherokee father with insights into the
Indian way of life, but the pressures of prejudice and her mother's insanity drove her into years of
drug and alcohol abuse as well as into abusive relationships. She writes in a stately, unashamed manner
of beatings and binges, always connecting her personal sufferings to the larger questions of how Indian
people can reclaim their cultural and personal pride and authority. A tragic loss ends the book's
story, but far from making it a tale of failure, this final death confirms, through Hedge Coke's
presentation, her growth into a profound witness to Indian culture and its deep-rooted spiritual
and philosophical values. — Booklist
Razor-sharp. — Chris Rubich, Billings Gazette
This book has the ability to open eyes, and to provide freedom on a deep and pesonal level through the
glory of truth, which is a beautiful thing no matter how shocking its origins. Rock, Ghost, Willow,
Deer is one read that you will not forget. — Diane Zephier, Quiet Mountain Essays
An extraordinary story of survival, compassion, courage, and a balanced comprehension of acceptance and
the will to live. — Maggie Necefer, Multicultural Review
It is through her lush yet controlled use of language that Hedge Coke successfully creates a narrative
of both personal and cultural history. ... She is often unflinchingly succinct in her telling of some
painful event, and other times, especially when describing moments when she is close to death, she
offers us lyric gems. ... She travels like a liminal being, moving fluidly across boundaries between
prose and poetry, dream and reality, myth and history, animal and human, the personal and political.
— Fourth Genre
Coke's childhood and young adult years as recounted in this gritty and courageous memoir are not only a
story of survival but a story of strength. — Campbell Editorial.com
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What the Critics Say
