Walking with Ghosts : Poems

by DRISKILL QWO-LI

• ISBN13: 9781844711130
• ISBN10: 1844711137
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-05-31
• Publisher: Lightning Source Inc

Summary

Written from a contemporary Cherokee, Queer, and mixed-race experience, Walking with Ghosts: Poems confronts the legacy of land-theft, genocide, and forced removal of Cherokees from their homelands while simultaneously resisting ongoing attacks on both Indigenous and Gay/ Lesbian/ Bisexual /Transgender (GLBT) communities. The debut work of Qwo-Li Driskill, a young Cherokee poet also of African, Irish, Lenape, Lumbee, and Osage ancestries, these poems move across Cherokee history. From the infamous Trail of Tears and the Allotment Act to the Indian boarding school system and contemporary manifestations of racism, these poems reach into Cherokee collective memory asking its readers to not only remember the history of colonization, but also the survival and continuance of Indigenous Nations. With this collection Driskill, who identifies as Queer as well as Two-Spirit (a contemporary term used in North American Indigenous communities to describe diverse sexual and gender identities) becomes one of only a few of American Indian Queer/Two-Spirit male writers in print. Refusing to compromise identities, Driskill also grapples with the impact of hate crimes on GLBT communities, multiracial and multi-tribal identity, the AIDS crisis, psychic trauma, and war. Yet the poems in this collection are rooted in a sense of love and the power of words to heal the legacies of colonization and other forms of violence. Cherokee love poems weave into eulogies to the dead while ghosts draw the living into a place of wholeness. Tender, startling, confrontational and erotic, this book honors the dead and brings the survivors back home.

Table of Contents

A Visit to the Poetry CafT

Welcome to the Poetry CafT, London

SalatG de Vinete, or Aubergine Salad

Egg

The Customer's ComplaintNii

Deep Fried Yam with Avocado Kpakpo

Behind the Menu

Bridging Gaps between Blackboards

Chilled Beetroot and Apple Soup

Egyptian Spinach and Lentil Soup

Spicy Caramelized Red Onion Soup

Baked Halloumi with Puy Lentils and Tomato Sauce

Apricot

Poetry on a Plate - a feast of recipes and poems

On Drinking your Good Health

Ovid in an English Kitchen-Garden

The BanquetAppetisersFrances

Eating

Word Tasting

House Ltd Tempura of Aubergine and Courgette with

Sheers Hedge School

Tart with Goat's Cheese Leekes

Onions Simon Aquilina Arancini with Red Peppers

Lettuces

Sandwich Love

After Francis Amunategui

Mains & Sides

The Hare as Love

Dressed

TomatoesTomato Pudding

SailSparrowgrass

Tagliatelle with Fig

BrackenburyHoliday

Musings on Bread and poetry

'Winter Presentation' of slow baked breast of duck served pink with Plum Pudding, Assiette of Pear, Balsamic

Kidney PuddingGillian Clarkefrom Flesh

Tuscan-Style Lamb

Food For Risen Bodies - II

Fricasse of Pig's Liver

The Meat FactoryClaire

Venison Fillet with Wild Mushroom

FainlightLove-Feast

Chicken with Sherry Vinegar and Tarragon

Pudding Rules

Tandoori Breast of Squab Pigeon

CurryCyrus TodiwalaBadaam

The Chapatti TrickPuddingsSelima

HillJam

Making Lemon

SinghLemon & CrFme Fraeche Mousse

HopeFruit

ContiniCoconut Kisses

PancakeFlossie SquiresBlackberry and Apple Charlotte

Fleur AdcockSummer in Bucharest

Prue Leith OBEMuscovado Heaven

Recipes for Marriage

Snow Pudding

Chocolate Pudding

A Summer Pudding

Very Best Chocolate Cake

A Glass of Guinness

Three Women Sharing a Bowl of CrFme BrvlTe

ConranCreme BruleeBen JonsonTo Penshurst (an extract)

National Poetry Day menuJohn Keatsfrom The Eve of St. Agnes

Fanny Keats's Plum Cake

Fanny Keats's Hazelnut or Walnut Cake

Honey Buns with Sultanas

Bee Lines

Menu Dreadlock Alien aka

The Chef's Eyes

Vegetarian Sun-dried Tomat

Vegetarians

There Was a Knock on the Door

It Was the Meat

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

At the Queer Conference Dinner I looked into your dark eyes with shock when you asked me if I could do a traditional Indian dance to entertain these mostly white faces All these white faces except yours and a few others I could count on one hand and I spit out the word NO like a rock hoping its sound falling to the floor would wake you up from all these lies they've fed us It didn't I left the room to stand in the parking lot and smoke Brother How angry I was for being angry with you Your young Azteca body shrouded in the expensive business clothes white men wear when they write out contracts to sell our grandmothers' hearts I know you are pleading only to stay alive and One day I will dance for you It will be my prayer that you come home