So much in this collection and I was
drawn to the ways that Long Soldier worked with the idea of space through out,
addressing it visually on the page and how it is delineated, defined and
separated through words and through violence.
The first poem I was struck by was “Three,” a poem so simple and
universal. At first it made me reflect
on relationships of love and the way in which our perceptions and past define
our lovers and hold them in space, framing them by our own frames rather than
by their actual being. As I read on this
poem took on more meaning about how a person is defined by cultural stereotypes
and also relationally, existing in the cultural context of our time and
histories.
On the page space is defined in so
many ways, words shaped to form a hammer, bracketed, disjointed, placed with
great expanse between words, lines and even poems to emphasize a reordering of
space, and a re-emphasis of the violence’s committed against native people. On 97 of “Resolutions” space is literally
boxed in to boundary “recognized Indian tribes” and earlier on 91 words in the
sentence are footnoted in order to emphasize the brutal resolution “I recognize
that official ill-breaking of the Indian.”
Space is given to consider the erasure of culture, language, and
physical humans through the careful crafting of each poem. I was especially drawn to the way in which
the process of writing was exposed in the work through consideration of
language and its power and its inevitable failures:
“I am
reminded of the linguistic impossibility of identity”
“ how
do I language a collision arrived at through separation?”
when some languages do not have words for apology
and yet there are rituals that provide actions for the sentiment, how do we as
a culture imagine reparations without actual repair? The cultural emptiness of the apology made to
native peoples is starkly illuminated in the poem Whereas when Standing Rock is
referenced, the perfect opportunity for praxis on the part of the government
which was completely missed.
Lastly I want to comment on
the consideration of wholeness in this piece through some of the most resonant
lines for me:
“whereas I
did not desire in childhood to be a part of this but desired most of all to be
a/ part. A piece combined with others to
make up a whole.” (64)
“my
hope: my daughter understands wholeness for/ what it is, not for what it’s not,
all of it the pieces;” (76)
What
is it to be whole, to create space for everyone, everything to exist as a whole
as the grasses?
"The cultural emptiness of the apology made to native peoples is starkly illuminated in the poem Whereas when Standing Rock is referenced, the perfect opportunity for praxis on the part of the government which was completely missed." I completely agree! the funny thing is that people don't know how downplayed and unheard of the apology to native peoples was. As a native person, I feel like I am somehwhat updated on Indigenous American issues but after reading whereas for the first time, I didn't even know about the apology! No one really in my community talked about the apology when it happened. There was no oral communication to even discuss the so called apology. I think you're right standing rock would have been the perfect moment/time and place to make right many of the wrongs that have happened with the native american community. It's sad to say that the situation went the other way. But there is still the chance to honor the treaties of the Native folks in America.
ReplyDeleteThe focus on space is clearly the way to enter the poems of Longsoldier. The apology is also in space, so absent and needed,
ReplyDeletee