I really liked this, but WOW are these poems packed with trauma. Inter-generational colonial/settler/residence school trauma, foster care trauma, gendI really liked this, but WOW are these poems packed with trauma. Inter-generational colonial/settler/residence school trauma, foster care trauma, gender trauma, sex work trauma. I had to read this book in short sips and then take breaks to read other things. Please check the CWs for this one.
My favorite poem in the collection was the first one, "Sea glass"
how often you find me smooth & soft after being torn through countless grains of trauma; coping. you only like me then.
This book broke me. I am angry that I read it. Angry I did not check CWs. I laid in bed and sobbed after I finished it. Hope for huHow do I rate this?
This book broke me. I am angry that I read it. Angry I did not check CWs. I laid in bed and sobbed after I finished it. Hope for humanity or any of the characters in this book was repeatedly teased and then relentlessly stripped away. It is the bleakest book I have ever read. Bleaker than Butler. Convinced me that humanity is a mistake and we should all be thrown into the sea....more
This is the third collection of Erdrich's that I've read, and each one just makes me want to read more!
I loved "The Coldness Was Coldness" taking on WThis is the third collection of Erdrich's that I've read, and each one just makes me want to read more!
I loved "The Coldness Was Coldness" taking on William Carlos Williams and his most famous (or at least most viral) poem of ice boxes and plums -- and the near-invisible wife implied therein. I loved "Oh - Terrible Movie!" watching "The Day After Tomorrow" in the midst of 2019's polar vortex, proud when their kid heckles the screen. but perhaps most of all I love the last two poems in the collection, "Dream of the Land-Based Future" and "Reprieve," that dream imagined futures that give reason for hope.
Another book that had been on my to-read list for a while, then I picked it up at the library when I spied it on the National Poetry Month display. BeAnother book that had been on my to-read list for a while, then I picked it up at the library when I spied it on the National Poetry Month display. Beautiful, mournful, inspiring, all the feelings. Another collection that is a mix of traditional poetry, short essays, quotes, and other tidbits -- deliberately creating and enriching the context the poems exist in. I love this format and found it very effective.
This collection is loosely shaped around the Trail of Tears, moving backward and forward in time to explore the dislocations and absences, the culture, homes, and relationships lost, but also finding joy in what remains, in reclaiming memory, in forging new identities and new traditions in the ashes of what was left.
This book had been on my to-read list for so long that every time I saw it in a bookstore it was so familiar I felt uncertain as to whether I had alreThis book had been on my to-read list for so long that every time I saw it in a bookstore it was so familiar I felt uncertain as to whether I had already purchased a copy at some point. (I had not.) But then it was on the display for National Poetry Month at my local library, so I finally checked it out and read it during the Feminist Book Club Readathon.
I think all the build-up actually made it harder for me to enjoy this book. Because I felt like it was fine, I enjoyed it. There were individual poems that moved me, that inspired me, that surprised me. But somehow I stayed removed from them all. I did not love this collection quite like I wanted to. (I may also have been influenced by the fact that this library copy REEKED of cigarette smoke. I mean, it was really bad. it made being near enough this book to read it unpleasant.)
Themes of Native identity and culture, queerness, the importance of water, womanhood, myth, permeate these poems. I am glad that I finally read this, I am just a little surprised that I am unlikely to go buy a copy to keep for myself. I will still seek out her previous collection, though....more
I received this for Christmas and immediately dove into reading it. It's one of those books I like to savor -- As a collection of essays, I would readI received this for Christmas and immediately dove into reading it. It's one of those books I like to savor -- As a collection of essays, I would read an essay or two at a time, then set it aside for a bit. It's really beautiful nature writing that made me long to summer at biological research stations -- but I'm sure that also has something to do with being stuck mostly inside for a year.
A deft weaving of the biological, personal, and cultural. Also, I will never look at mosses the same....more
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