New Poets of Native Nations

Anthologies are incredibly difficult to rate, but let's start here: of the 21 indigenous and native poets that make up this collection, I had previously heard of exactly four of them, and I had previously only read one of them (Layli Long Soldier's Whereas, which I was pleased to get to revisit in brief).

I love that this book gave me a small taste of the language of each of these poets, and gave a short biography of each with their published collections listed, and then in the authors' notes at the end, each suggested other native poets that more people should read. I've got quite a list going of other poets to check out now.

My favorites seem to be poems that are clear truth, sharp irony, vivid imagery.

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From “My Standard Response” by Karenne Wood:
As they ask, they think yesI can see it in her face. High cheekbones(whatever those are) and dark hair.Here's a thought: don't we all have high cheekbones? If we didn't,our faces would cave in.

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“What Is Left” by Sy Hoahwah:
What is leftof my family's 160 acres:A lone pecan treeOn the fringe of Cache CreekA squirrel runs up and downthe trunkcarrying insultsbetween my dead grandfatherand the birds that livein the top branches.I carve my nameon the moon's teeth.

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(I read that line about the squirrel's insults out loud to Matt because it was just awesome and hilarious.)
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And finally, “Dakota Homecoming” by Gwen Nell Westerman:
We are so honored thatyou are here, they said.We know that this isyour homeland, they said.The admission priceis five dollars, they said.Here is your buttonfor the event, they said.It means so much to us thatyou are here, they said.We want to write an apology letter, they said.Tell us what to say.

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DAMN.

I'd say, if you're at all interested in poetry, check this collection out. There will likely be something you will love here among these authors, and it'll give you a glimpse of some of the amazing work that isn't necessarily getting a lot of mainstream attention (but should be!).