Little WildheartBy turns quirky, startling, earthy, and hope-filled, Micheline Maylor’s poems slip effortlessly through topics ranging from what we give up as we age to regrets for love that has passed, the interplay between the animal world and human thought, and the myths we append to ourselves and others. An expansive, conversational voice underscores the poet’s technical mastery as her subjects turn from love to hope to fearlessness. Maylor asks readers to perceive how we inhabit our selves, how words construct us. Little Wildheart is rich with challenge and surprise. I check the box on the government forms: Caucasian. No box for colonized, for the 1/16th bred. Just the double helix of my DNA, my ability to sun-brown, and my own green-eyed children of the voyageur, river visions still caught in their irises. We’re born out of a long ago season. Everyone is sure of place and race. Blood and semen mixed in dirt and cervix, convex and enchanted by muskrat’s eerie smile, dark truth furred and matted, stroked by a river paddle. Let that long tooth bite now in the land of the race riots, negro, and redskin, the underground railroad, and the Indian village. Let the name Pontiac take new form and hit the road, the righteous mile where judgement and boundary blurs, especially on matters of composition blood, bone, and relations. —from “Detroit Zoo bathroom 1977” |
Contents
1 | |
2 | |
Convergence | 3 |
The lovers | 4 |
Dissilience | 5 |
Ten | 6 |
In Saskatchewan surrealism invades the silence | 8 |
Rewind | 9 |
How to be in a garden | 38 |
Fleece | 40 |
Thorn apples | 41 |
Dust | 42 |
Another day of feminist perspective | 43 |
Relativity | 44 |
Reasons for learning cursive | 45 |
I always wanted a tattoo | 46 |
Rust | 11 |
Conscientious objectors | 12 |
Polarity | 13 |
Before the dark | 14 |
Morning on the old reserve | 15 |
Detroit Zoo bathroom 1977 | 16 |
Legendagenda | 17 |
Prayer of the agnostic | 18 |
Constitution | 19 |
Oh by the way | 20 |
Unrequited | 21 |
Red sky at morning | 22 |
The narrative | 23 |
Three dogs and an old man | 24 |
Almanac of the Douglas fir | 25 |
Cormorants | 26 |
Le deluge | 27 |
For there are still such mysteries and such advice | 28 |
Consecrated grounds | 30 |
Rapid eye movement | 31 |
Ooh nom | 32 |
About suffering | 34 |
If you | 35 |
No snow falls | 36 |
Pupil | 37 |
Of appreciation | 48 |
45 am | 49 |
Firewall | 50 |
Inclement | 51 |
Dive | 52 |
Evacuation | 53 |
Mercurial | 54 |
Citizenship of the broken heart | 55 |
Fear of water | 56 |
The chosen | 57 |
Let free | 58 |
Ordinary days | 59 |
Drop of doom | 60 |
There is no place that does not see you | 62 |
Between the trees | 63 |
Talisman pool | 64 |
Ive forgotten more than I knew | 65 |
Free | 66 |
Benediction | 67 |
I bet you already knew | 68 |
Acknowledgements | 71 |
Closing epigraph | 73 |
About the Author | 75 |
Other Titles from The University of Alberta Press | 78 |
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Common terms and phrases
afternoon already asked become believe Birds blood blue body called can’t chase close comes cover dark don’t dream Drop ears existed eyes face falls fear feel fingers fire flowers forget French frog fruit hair half hand hear heart heat hold hope I’ve imagine It’s keeps knew lake learning leave Let free let’s light listening lives looking lover matter mean meant morning morph mother never night noli timere once party pass past poems pounded and pounded pulled Reasons recall remember road rock secret shift sleep somehow Sometimes space speak stop story sure sweet tell things thought tiny tonight trees turn universe walk watch wave wind window wings woman wonder yesterday