File:Hart Crane read by Tennessee Williams, Indiana

Description
I love Indiana, American history in a very personal form, the last poem in Powhatan's Daughter. The poem before it, The Dance, begins with a sensual Pocahontas in the Appalachian Spring. In Indiana, Pocahontas ends up a homeless squaw holding her (perhaps dead) baby in her arms. The narrator, a white woman on a wagon train going West, sees the poor mother and holds up her own baby to show her as she passes by, her son born and to be raised on the prairie, vanishing Indian becoming visible immigrant. Now, an old woman, the narrator is saying goodbye to her boy, a young man leaving for a life on the sea, far from her and the prairie. Tennessee Williams’ skill as a playwright helps him here; he becomes the old woman himself telling the tale, saying goodbye to her son. I find it moving.

For more poetry and other stuff, check out: donyorty.com/blog

Tags: Hart Crane, Tennessee Williams, Indiana, Caedmon records, the spoken word, Powhatan's Daughter