Preview of In the Presence of the Sun: Stories And Poems 1961-1991 Summary:

Momaday's sympathies for the environment are not political; rather, he asserts that the human relationship with nature is a spiritual and aesthetic one. Nature itself is indifferent to us; rather, we are enriched by our response to nature — its beauty and mystery — particularly as it enhances our imagination and our art.

Unlike many writers of the American West, Momaday does not romaticize Nature's response to humans: Nature is indifferent, impassive; death and life are both natural. One of Momaday's illustrations of this is in "Comparatives." The first stanza is a fish gasping on the sunlit deck of a ship, the second stanza is that of a desert fossil of an other fish trapped in the throes of the same silent agony. The final stanza compares both fish to the wind on waves: "mere commotion / mute and mean." Similarly, "Angle of Geese" discusses the disconnection between Nature...