Document for an Anonymous Indian

“Arn Henderson's Document for an Anonymous Indian is rich with revelation, and it acted upon me in various ways: it is poignant, it is brutal, it is compelling and authentic . It is a journey through the Oklahoma I have always known but never read about. A vigorous montage of road signs, fragments of the landscape, conversations, historical flashbacks, folk dialogues, and graveyard ghosts, it has the color and also the austerity that is uniquely Oklahoman. It is a document of the senses, of sharp noises and silent spaces, of the warmth of blood, urine, and vomit, of the immobility of frozen animals, of the taste of rattlesnake, of the smell of the earth, of men and women, of the sky and of the weather. It ends too soon and unsatisfyingly, probably because it has a momentum and energy that makes you want to keep on reading. I wish I had written it”

–Mike Dirham, designer and filmmaker.

“Arn Henderson steals his poems from the real stuff of life–past and present, from obscure and remarkable things that happen to real people.  Drawing from heard conversations, casebooks, newspaper articles and journals, Henderson infuses his work with authenticity”

–Norma Clark Wilson, Professor Emeritus of English, The University of South Dakota.