Elegy on Glen Canyon

A poignant lamentation for the destruction we have wrought and a call to attention.



In 1963, Glen Canyon dam was constructed over Navajo, Hopi, Paiute, Ute and Pueblo ancestral lands. Its construction wrought immense destructive changes to the ecosystem and to the many species living there. Situated within the conversation between a tourist to the United States and a Diné elder who each visit the dam over many years, Elegy on Glen Canyon draws the reader into a profound lamentation. This powerful little book of verse speaks to the ways an expansionist, capitalist approach have violently defaced indigenous cultures and the complex ecosystems they inhabit. It also offers spaces to reclaim lost phrases, obsolete words and forms of attention. The rhythmic repetitions that name the dead and the sanctity of the living deserve to be read out loud.