Arizona Poets is a series featuring 20 poets from Arizona in honor of our 60th Anniversary. These poets have all visited the Poetry Center and recordings of those visits are available in our audiovisual archive, Voca. Click here to learn more about our anniversary and here to see the rest of this series.

Simon J. Ortiz—a celebrated poet, fiction writer, essayist, and storyteller—is a member of the Acoma Pueblo Nation. He has published more than twenty-five books, including Woven Stone and From Sand Creek. His work has been recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas. Ortiz is an emeritus professor at Arizona State University and lives in Phoenix.

See more of Ortiz's work on Voca. 

…higher up twisted aspen

made me lonesome for Crystal

on Arizona-New Mexico line.

From Going for the Rain. New York: Harper & Row, ©1976. Read the full poem here.