The Feast of the Virgins and Other Poems

Here the Mississippi sings its ancient song, and beneath its waters lie the stories of a people. Hanford Lennox Gordon's collection, drawn from his years among the Dakota in Minnesota, preserves something precious and perishable: the legends, the landscapes, and the lives of an indigenous nation on the edge of transformation. The title poem unfolds amid winter's ice, where Dakota maidens gather for their ancient game. At its center stands Wiwâstè, a young woman whose desires collide with the weight of tradition and the consequences of her choices. Through her story runs the tension between loyalty and longing, honor and betrayal, rendered with genuine emotional stakes. Other poems sweep across river valleys and plains, tracing the intersections of history, nature, and human endeavor. This is not romanticized frontier verse but something more complex: a document of encounter, written with genuine affection for the people and places that shaped it.