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Poetry Indigenous

North of Middle Island

by (author) Daniel (.D.A.). Lockhart

Publisher
Kegedonce Press
Initial publish date
Sep 2023
Category
Indigenous, Canadian, Epic
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781928120377
    Publish Date
    Sep 2023
    List Price
    $17.95

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Description

Journey to the southernmost tip of the territories held by Canada. North of Middle Island opens with a collection of individual poems thatcapture the spirit of the relatively isolated, sparsely populated community ofPelee Island. The pieces explore contemporary Indigenous experience in thenatural and built environments of the island and surrounding waters.
The book concludes with an epic, "rarely true" narrative of modern-day warriors, told in traditional Anglo-Saxon style--a new Lenape myth of how Deerwoman (Ahtuhxkwe) comes to Pelee Island. The events of this epic tale are loosely based on the infamous professional wrestler and actor Rowdy Roddy Piper's time on the island and Wrestlemania XII, Piper's notorious "Backlot Brawl" with fellow wrestler Goldust (Nkuli Punkw).
Follow acclaimed Moravian of the Thames First Nation poet D.A. Lockhart on this lyrical, epic journey into the unique culture and landscapes that lie just North of Middle Island.

About the author

D.A. Lockhart is the author of multiple collections of poetry and short fiction. His work has been shortlisted for the Raymond Souster Award, Indiana Author's Awards, First Nations Communities READ Award, and has been a finalist for the ReLit Award. His work has appeared widely throughout Turtle Island including, The Malahat Review, Grain, CV2, TriQuarterly, The Fiddlehead, ARC Poetry Magazine, Best Canadian Poetry, Best New Poetry from the Midwest, and Belt. Along the way his work has garnered numerous Pushcart Prize nominations, National Magazine Award nominations, and Best of the Net nominations. He is a graduate of the Indiana University - Bloomington MFA in Creative Writing program where he held a Neal-Marshall Graduate Fellowship in Creative Writing. He is pùkuwànkoamimëns of the Moravian of the Thames First Nation. Lockhart currently resides at Waawiiyaatanong and Pelee Island where he is the publisher at Urban Farmhouse Press.

Daniel (.D.A.). Lockhart's profile page

Excerpt: North of Middle Island (by (author) Daniel (.D.A.). Lockhart)

Ghosts of Cranes
Frosted grey-green
like beach glass
uncovered by a
tahkokën tempest,
our Neutral Sea foments
even sky
with writhing body
visible
in the breaches
of white
violence below.
The distance between lake bottom
and sky
is shallowest here,
without sand,
and the flaking rock
gives way
to fossils and loose gravel.
This is land's end,
the final steps before
a northern country
crumbles
into
the
fickle waters beyond.
Tread lightly here.
Lightly,
like a beach-shuffling tern,
talons raking sand
like a breath.
Know the petrified past
flakes away
to grit,
covers creation.
Through the settled dust,
consider Maumee mùxula,
cutting the impossible gap
between
shore and Middle Island's shadow.
Our crane relations, sublimated
to dust and wave residue,
apparitions that refuse
to leave or stay.

Editorial Reviews

"Part border report, part vision, Lockhart's new poems transport the reader via the momentum of a restless, agile imagination. Whether exploring lyric impressions of our natural world, or imagining the mythic dimensions of a local conflict, North of Middle Island is abundant, dramatic, passionate and ambitious in its gifts of observation and story-telling."
David O'Meara, author of Masses on Radar

"The poems of North of Middle Island are borne of a slow, sun-drenched observation, a long looking that mingles goodwith evil, folktale with tall tale, water's healing with tourism's damage, all measured out in slow drives down gravel roads, in storm winds, in wrestling and rock music. D.A. Lockhart shows us with such ease all that eludes colonial control, all the life that thrives on Pelee Island."
Laurie D. Graham, author of Fast Commute

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