I’m going to try to stick to three of my favorite poems in Whereas but it's easy to talk about so many other things besides the words in the Layli’s book. There’s language in both English and Lakota, there is form and the way Layli molds each poem delicately and there’s the sound to her poems, quiet yet booming.
This is my third time reading Whereas and I feel like every time I read it, it just gets better. There is always something new I didn’t read before as if the poem has taken a new taste and form to the palette of my mind.
Ever since I heard Layli read Steady Summer, it has remained my favorite poem in the book, it is celebration of land, it is love for land and it is connection to land.
“grass needle tips around the edges of wounds this summer potent grass songs a grass chorus moves shhhhh” (31). Not only is Long Soldier describing land but she is listening to the land, she is hearing it sing and in a way its a translation of the song she hears the grasses sing on a windy day.
Another favorite of mine is 38, it is so powerful. Layli writes “I started writing about this piece because I was interested in writing about grasses” (52). However it becomes the story of the Dakota 38 who were hanged because of the Sioux uprising. It is a poem of violence, racism, grass, Indigenous language and about erasure Indigenous people. I like that Layli points out how the same week Abraham Lincoln signed the emancipation proclamation he also let the Dakota 38 happen. But in the movie of him they do not mention the latter part as if the latter part was not an importance to mention. As if 38 bodies deceased are of not importance to the life of Abraham Lincoln even though he gave the okay for their hanging.
Lastly, the whereas poem on page 65 always has me in tears. It is poem about Layli having breakfast with her father and his apology. In the sea of so called apology in the Whereas statements this is the one that you can feel that it is genuine. “I looked up to see that he hadn’t sneezed, he was crying. I’d never heard him cry, didn’t recognize the symptoms. I turned to him when I heard him say I’m sorry I wasn’t there for many things/ like that/ curative voicing/ an opened bundle/ or medicine/ or birthday wishing/ my hand to his shoulder/ it’s okay I said it’s over now I meant it” (65). Now that is a genuine apology. And Natives know when an apology, laugh, comment or statement is genuine or not because we have been lied to so many times. This moment of tenderness and healing between Layli and her father always makes me feel like mush because this apology is bigger than something from the government, it is family.
Hi Amber,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post <3 I can feel your connection to the text as I read your response. It's absolutely beautiful to experience:
"Not only is Long Soldier describing land but she is listening to the land, she is hearing it sing and in a way its a translation of the song she hears the grasses sing on a windy day."
As an a third gen indigenousness person who has grown up in cities all my life- I have found it difficult to claim my connection to land and nature, yet- it is work like Layli's that reminds me that the land is there for me always, as long as I am invested in giving just as much as I take from her. She needs to be listened to as well; lend an ear and she will be a shoulder for me always.
Thanks again for your insights!
I want to echo and agree with your thoughts in this post, particularly about the poem 38. I also appreciate how Long Soldier employs irony in "38," with "I do not regard this as a poem of great imagination or a work of fiction." By stating what the poem is *not*, Long Soldier clears the pathway for the content and dispels potentially harmful expectations of the reader.
ReplyDelete"Quiet yet booming" is such a good way to put it. I think that the apology poem with her father is a perfect example of this. The power of the apology is in its honesty and simplicity. Her father acknowledging his regrets and feeling it so deeply that he does what he normally doesn't do: he cries. It doesn't require fanfare. There's very little elaboration about all the things he is apologizing for. It isn't about the words. Just being a body with another body in the room. An apology is an exchange of sorts. Long Soldier being able to put a hand on his shoulder and receive the apology. Let it go. End a cycle and begin a new one.
ReplyDeleteIt's such an understated but "booming" example of all the things the proclamation does not in any way accomplish or make an effort to do.
Hey Amber, I loved your reading of this book of poetry! Similarly, I thought a lot about the Dakota 38 and its hiddenness, and its importance all tied into one. I liked the connection Layli has with the word grass. She begins the book of poetry by telling the reader to get used to the word in their mouths, tying that into the Dakota 38 poem really made the symbolism hit me like a stone dropped in my stomach.
ReplyDelete