LOVED this book, a Christmas gift from my Dad who saw her read once at the UND Writer’s Conference.
The first section is poems about her mother. They’re elegaic and beautiful. There’s love mixed with frustrating memories. There’s grief. Really wonderful.
There’s a section of poems that imagine things from the point of view of the (unfortunate) black soldiers in the Civil War. They’re unexpected and insightful. A history you or I could never experience, fully come to life. Wow.
And in the last section she explores her own history, mixed in to her parents’ lives, as a child of two races in a disapproving world. Returning home, both physically and emotionally. Remembering, and now understanding in a different way.
Really, really lovely. Highly recommended.