Walking with Ghosts by Qwo-Li Driskill was a very surprising collection of poems for me. I say surprising because I was skeptical of whether or not I would like his work, but to my surprise I really enjoyed it. He is a very powerful and influential writer. Especially hearing his poetry out loud really made the creative illustration stick out in my mind. All the themes in his poems, such as sovereignty of land/body, identity, and struggle confirm what we have been talking about in class throughout the semester.
I don’t like to judge people based on appearance or sexual preference, but the reason I was initially unsure was based on Qwo-Li’s background. With that in mind, I am still honestly able to say that his work was my favorite read of the semester. I really enjoyed the visions that he was able to create, added with the controversy to basically open my mind to making new connections.
His poem Lullaby, was one of my favorites. He speaks with such a truth and passion that it’s hard not to feel his emotions passed to the audience. The words that stick out to me most are, “I am sweating ink, You speak words, you were never supposed to, Your tongue a shield. I feel he utilizes a war on words, in particular paying attention to body parts in relation to identity and the land. This is what I chose to contribute to the poem we constructed in groups and I feel it is a very meaningful and fascinating play on words.
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You say you were unsure about Qwo-Li's poetry because of his background, which is funny because I was unsure about it for the opposite reason. I started reading the book with no idea who the author was. I developed the impression that it was a woman author, but after seeing the picture of a man on the back I got a little confused. Also, the language in many places sounded very African American to me, which was confusing as I knew the author was Native American. In the end, I worked out that he considers himself male, female, N.A., A.A., and I think a few other things.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how we want to classify people, and how we categorize people like authors who we can't even see. Our brain works by using categories and this is what makes us comfortable (I know this from psychology), so someone who doesn't fit neatly into those categories like Qwo-Li can really throw us off, make us feel unsure.