Alonzo Lopez

Born in Pima County, Arizona, Alonzo Lopez is a Papago, an agricultural people noted for their exquisite basketry. Lopez studied at the Institute of American Indian Art at Santa Fe, New Mexico, spent an interim year at Yale and then transferred to Wesleyan University expressly for the curriculum in American Indian studies and also to study the Navajo language. Source

Celebration

I shall dance tonight.

When the dusk comes crawling, 

There will be dancing

and feasting.

I shall dance with the others

in circles, 

in leaps,

in stomps.

 

Laughter and talk

Will weave into the night, 

Among the fires

of my people. 

Games will be played

And I shall be 

a part of it.

Published:

1991

Length:

Regular

Literary Movements:

Children's

Anthology Years:

2022

Themes:

Intersectionality & Culture

Joy & Praise

Literary Devices:

Anaphora

a figure of speech in which words repeat at the beginning of successive clauses, phrases, or sentences

Imagery

visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work

Polysyndeton

the repetition of conjunctions frequently and in close proximity in a sentence

Transferred Epithet

When an adjective usually used to describe one thing is transferred to another.

Visual Poetry

Poetry written on the page with intentional form to add meaning to the poem.