The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee

“The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee” is an exuberant self-definition by the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, short story writer, essayist, poet and Native American, N. Scott, Momady, whose Kiowa name is Tsoai-talee. It is a joyous catalog of all his delights, of all that he is. In this work, the tempo is rapid as the images tumble one after another culminating with the exclamation “You see, I am alive, I am alive.” The piece should be sung with energy and focus even (or especially) in the soft sections.

The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee
I am a feather on the bright sky
I am the blue horse that runs in the plain
I am the fish that rolls, shining, in the water
I am the shadow that follows a child
I am the evening light, the lustre of meadows
I am an eagle playing with the wind
I am a cluster of bright beads
I am the farthest star
I am the cold of dawn
I am the roaring of the rain
I am the glitter on the crust of the snow
I am the long track of the moon in a lake
I am a flame of four colors
I am a deer standing away in the dusk
I am a field of sumac and the pomme blanche
I am an angle of geese in the winter sky
I am the hunger of a young wolf
I am the whole dream of these things

You see, I am alive, I am alive
I stand in good relation to the earth
I stand in good relation to the gods
I stand in good relation to all that is beautiful
I stand in good relation to the daughter of Tsen-tainte
You see, I am alive, I am alive

“The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee” from In the Presence of the Sun: Stories and Poems, 1961-1991, copyright 1991 by N. Scott Momaday.