Art by Gidinatiy Hartman

Poem,

There Is No Word for Goodbye

By Mary TallMountain

From the October 2026 Issue

Learning Objective: Students will determine the theme of a poem and analyze how the theme develops.

Featured Skill: Theme,

Standards

Listen to this poem read aloud.

There Is No Word for Goodbye

by Mary TallMountain

Sokoya, I said, looking through

the net of wrinkles into

wise black pools

of her eyes.

What do you say in Athabascan

when you leave each other?

What is the word

for goodbye?

A shade of feeling rippled

the wind-tanned skin.

Ah, nothing, she said,

watching the river flash.

She looked at me close.

We just say, Tlaa. That means,

See you.

We never leave each other.

When does your mouth

say goodbye to your heart?

She touched me light

as a bluebell.

You forget when you leave us;

you’re so small then.

We don’t use that word.

We always think you’re coming back,

but if you don’t,

we’ll see you someplace else.

You understand.

There is no word for goodbye.

Meet the Poet

Sometimes understanding a poet’s life can help unlock a poem’s meaning. Here are five things we think are important to know about Mary TallMountain (1918-1994).

Mary in 1986

1. Mary TallMountain was born in 1918, a member of the Koyukon Athabascan people of Alaska. As a young child, she lived in the village of Nulato surrounded by family, her Native language, stories, and the natural world she would later describe in her poetry.

Young Mary in Alaska, in a parka made by her mother

2. When TallMountain was a child, her mother became ill with an infectious disease called tuberculosis. To protect TallMountain, she gave her up for adoption. TallMountain was then raised by a White family, mostly in Oregon and California.

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3. Growing up outside her Athabascan community and culture was often painful and lonely for TallMountain. But writing soothed her. Her adoptive mother encouraged her to read poetry and keep a diary, and TallMountain published her first story when she was just 8 years old.

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4. In the 1970s, TallMountain finally returned to Alaska, 50 years after she left. This return trip changed her. She reconnected with relatives, heard her Native language spoken again, and visited the land where she had been born.

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5. TallMountain came to believe that the people we love are never completely gone. That belief lives at the heart of “There Is No Word for Goodbye.” In the poem, TallMountain reflects on the Athabascan understanding that family, memory, and spirit remain connected across distance and time, and even after death.

—By Natalie Hughes