Going to War with All My Relations: New and Selected Poems

The title of Rose's ( The Halfbreed Chronicles and Other Poems ) new collection aptly points to the complexion of her poems. A descendant of the Hopi and Miwok tribes, the poet-as-shaman gives voice to her brothers and sisters: ``I let my tongue lick / your bones back together . . . / I light the fire / to heat your lips. / I touch your spirit / that was never in danger,'' she intones in a poem about the Anishnabec Occupation. Meshing her own experience with revisionist history and newsworthy events, she carves a place for herself amid the cultures surrounding her, such as that of the Mormons, who ``like to play / that I want to change, / that I don't mind ending myself / in their holy book.'' Culled from earlier books, and including a hefty selection of new work, this collection places 20 years of writing in perspective. Rose's concerns have remained consistent: ecological, archaeological and feminist. Assuming a sometimes ironic, sometimes angry cowboy-and-Indian stance, the speakers of many recent poems draw on the poet's experience as a university professor, dealing with interminable staff meetings and complacent students. Throughout the volume, the writing is at times prosaic, rhetorical or gimmicky, but the spirit rings true. (Mar.)