Contemplations of a Primal Mind by Gabriel Horn. (Novata, California: 
New World Library, 1996, ISBN 1-880032-55-4), 166 pages
Gabriel Horn begins the first chapter of Contemplations of a Primal Mind 
with a quote from Nippawanock:  
"Civilized man seems a curious creature to primitive man, who would not 
wantonly trade places with him because the resultant loss would be too 
great."
And then he moves forward, singing praise of the primal mind, speaking 
of dreams and realities that separate those who follow the inner and 
real light of their true selves from those who follow the artificial 
light of a civilization divorced from nature.  He writes about the 
conquerors of today, who practice environmental holocaust; and mourns 
the fact that even many Native Americans are walking a path of wanton 
destructiveness, of dissociation from their "original instructions" on 
how to live life as a part of a mysterious and interconnected universe.
Horn speaks in many voices in Contemplations of a Primal Mind.  
Sometimes he is a moralist; sometimes a philosopher; sometimes a 
storyteller.  Always, he is as much a poet as a prose writer.  In his 
first chapter, Horn discusses the differences in the ways civilized 
people and primal people think.  In his third chapter, he tells the 
story of an apparition of an Indian maiden watching his children one 
morning on a sunny Florida beach.
Like his earlier book, Native Heart, Contemplations of a Primal Mind 
created intense emotions inside me.  I wept with Horn over the death of 
his wife, Simone.  I wondered with him as he swam with the dolphins.
And, like Native Heart, Contemplations of a Primal Mind sowed in me 
seeds that will grow into my own poetry.
However, this book did not leave my soul dancing in the same way that 
Native Heart did.  As I read Native Heart, I was filled with the joy and 
wonder of being an Indian in today's world, even after all the murders 
and thefts against my own people through over five hundred long years.  
Contemplations of a Primal Mind left me feeling a deep doubt about where 
I am going, where any of us are going; and a terrible sense of 
responsibility for a world that has created me in its image far more 
than I have created it in mine.
By the time I had finished reading this book, I had become aware of an 
intense struggle between my own primal core and my civilized façade.  I 
became aware of how much I have grown into oneness with the conquerors, 
despite all my intentions to remain one with my own people.
And so I wrote a poem:
I Seek
By Sondra Ball
I seek to uncover
the lore of the mothers,
the old tribal pathways,
the songs and the stories.
The eagle flies freely
above the deep canyons.
But I am entrapped here
in the strangers' New World.
I long to recover
the joy and the beauty
of tribal traditions
we lost in the troubles.
The eagle flies freely
above the high mountains.
But my wings have been clipped
by a conqueror's sword.
              Copyright 1997 sondra ball
And now for the inevitable book rating:
On a scale of 0 to 10 (0 meaning, "Don't ever read this book, even if 
you are slowly tortured to death for refusing to read it;" and 10 
meaning "Drop everything immediately, including the baby at your breast, 
and don't do another blessed thing until you have read it"), I give 
Contemplations of a Primal Mind an 8.
                                 Book review composed by Sondra Ball
                                 copyright 1997 sondra ball  
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