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nicola323's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.0
siobhanward's review
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
This was so well-written and engaging and heartbreaking.
janeycanuck's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
3.0
Poetry has just never been something I've gotten into but I really enjoyed listening to the discussion about this on the Storykeepers podcast.
yunnie's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Death
annemaries_shelves's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.75
Somewhere between 3.5 and 4 stars
Halfe's poetry is really well constructed and full of imagery and emotion.
I personally liked the second half of the collection more overall, but overall its a really well done collection.
She touches on a lot of themes that I get the sense appear through all her collections: trauma and residential school experiences, relationships (familial and romantic), personal growth and discovery of self, and more. Her Cree background informs all of her poetry and I appreciated the use of Cree words throughout the text - it added an additional element to her storytelling (i.e. code-switching and decolonizing).
I'd definitely be interested in reading her earlier collections as well!
Some favourite poems:
Con Game
akāwāta - to long for
wīsakan - a bitter taste
nīmihis - the dancer
Unpacking the Knapsack
Carry on
A hummingbird
"When you fall, you don't wallow in self-pity. You get up."
Lateral Practises
The Quandry
ospwātan - the pipe
Burning in this Midnight Dream
Owners of themselves
Halfe's poetry is really well constructed and full of imagery and emotion.
I personally liked the second half of the collection more overall, but overall its a really well done collection.
She touches on a lot of themes that I get the sense appear through all her collections: trauma and residential school experiences, relationships (familial and romantic), personal growth and discovery of self, and more. Her Cree background informs all of her poetry and I appreciated the use of Cree words throughout the text - it added an additional element to her storytelling (i.e. code-switching and decolonizing).
I'd definitely be interested in reading her earlier collections as well!
Some favourite poems:
Con Game
akāwāta - to long for
wīsakan - a bitter taste
nīmihis - the dancer
Unpacking the Knapsack
Carry on
A hummingbird
"When you fall, you don't wallow in self-pity. You get up."
Lateral Practises
The Quandry
ospwātan - the pipe
Burning in this Midnight Dream
Owners of themselves