The Wishing-Bone Cycle Excerpts

By: Jacob Nibenegenesabe per Howard Norman (347-350)

Howard Norman is an American writer who has produced several translations. The Wishing-Bone Cycle was his first publication, which he received the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award for. Norman says he gathered the poems within The Wishing-Bone Cycle through storytelling sessions with two Cree storytellers, including Jacob Nibenegenesabe. This fact points to the reasoning as to why Norman is credited in the title of the poems, since he was involved directly in the storytelling process.

Norman describes Nibenegenesabe as having “'lived for some ninety-four years northeast of Lake Winnipeg, Canada'”(350). Along with the poems in The Wishing-Bone Cycle, he was known as the teller of older trickster narratives.

Trickster stories in Cree culture present supernatural figures that often cause mischief and are used as both entertainment and a medium to spread moral lessons on culture and society. They are connected to the creation and protection of life.

One common trickster in Cree culture is known as "Wesakechak," whose name can appear in various spellings, including “Weesageechak” and “Wisakedjak.” Wesakechak is often recognized for one story where he disobeyed the Creator when asked to enforce peace between humans and animals, which led to the flooding of the world. Some oral accounts of the story share that the Creator took away Wesakechak's powers, due to his disobedience, leaving him with only basic quality of a trickster: deception. A moral lesson stemming from this story could be learning the consequences of your actions, as Wesakechak is punished after not listening to the Creator.

In the stories from The Wishing-Bone Cycle the trickster figure is unnamed. He has “'found the wishbone of a snow goose who has wandered into the swampy Cree region and has been killed by a lynx. This person now has the wand of metamorphosis allowing him to wish anything into existence; himself into any situation'” (350-351) The stories are told from a first-person point of view, where the trickster describes various instances of creation and deception he initiated for his own pleasure.

1. The first story focuses on the trickster wishing up a coat with a man inside of it during the summer. The man is not able to take the coat off, even when provided help from his friends, because the trickster does not wish for that to happen: “He tried to take it off/ but I wished his memory shivering with cold/ so it wouldn't want to remember how to take a coat off . . . I congratulated myself on thinking of that” (347). The main purpose of this story seems to be for entertainment, as the trickster repeats the phrase “things were getting interesting” as he watched the scene play out.
2. The second story focuses on the trickster wishing two moons into the sky to trick a man, hoping it will make him run back to the village to convince others of what he saw. However, when the man sees both moons he grows suspicious and tells the others, “'You will not believe this,/ but there are ONLY two moons in the sky tonight'” (349). The other men play along, making the trickster believe they were trying to send the joke back at him. In retaliation, the trickster wishes up a third moon, but the men claim they only see one and decide to go to sleep. The trickster is left confused and disappointed, as the men did not play into his fun: “I was left standing there/ with three moons shining on me/ There were three . . . I was sure of it” (349). The main purpose of this story seems to be to share a moral lesson, as the reader could learn the value of being truthful through the consequences the trickster receives from trying to trick the men in the village for his own enjoyment.
3. The third story focuses on the trickster talking about all the noises in the world meeting in his house. The noises seem to be a form of revenge from the people and animals that the trickster played jokes on, possibly the Fox or the Rabbit. The Rabbit is angry that the trickster ate his brother, and the Fox is angry because he wanted the Rabbit's brother to himself. As a result, the trickster and his wife can no longer hear well and the story ends with the following statement: “I should have wished them all away first thing” (350). The main purpose of this story also seems to be to share a moral lesson, as the reader could learn the downfalls of being greedy, as the trickster's multiple jokes result in pain for both him and his wife.

This excerpt from “The Wishing Bone Cycle” is formatted as a sequence poem, where three separate sections are set apart and numbered, likely to indicate the progression of time between the stories. Each numbered section appears as one long, single stanza. This structural choice adds to the sense of storytelling, as the reader must “listen” with rapt attention to the uninterrupted storyteller, who neither hesitates nor stops to take a breath until each story is concluded.

It is significant to recognize the editors' choice to include an addendum to this poetry selection. In this case, the addendum is “El poema de lo reverso” by Puerto Rican poet Victor Hernandez Cruz. There are striking parallels between the two poems, including structure. “El poema de lo reverso” is also not broken into stanzas, but written as one continuous entity.

Thematically, the poem also centers a progression in time, although of a broader scope. The anthology includes a quotation from Jacob Nibenegenesabe, the Canadian teller of trickster narratives, credited with “The Wishing Bone Cycle.” Nibenegenesabe says, “I go backward, look forward, as the porcupine does.” This sentiment reflects the opening lines of “El poema de lo reverso,” which read, “In which everything goes backwards/ in time and motion.” In both poems, there is a longing for reversal of narrative. At the end of the excerpt from “The Wishing Bone Cycle,” the speaker reflects regretfully, “I should have wished them all away/ first thing.” Similarly, the premise of “El poema de lo reverso” is the wishing away of destructive colonialization through a literal reversal of time.

“Howard Norman.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Norman.

Nibenegenesabe, Jacob and Howard Norman. “The Wishing-Bone Cycle [Excerpt].” The Serpent and the Fire: Poetries of the Americas from Origins to Present, edited by Jerome Rothernberg and Javier Taboada. University of California Press, 2024, pp. 347-350.

Robinson, Amanda. “Trickster | the Canadian Encyclopedia.” , 5 Apr. 2018, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/trickster.

“The Wishing Bone Cycle |.” Perilous Adventures, 5 Nov. 2016, https://www.perilousadventures.net/blog/?p=2366.

“Wisakedjak.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisakedjak.