| Instruments of the True Measure: Poems Volume 83 Contributor(s): Da', Laura (Author) |
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ISBN: 0816538271 ISBN-13: 9780816538270 Publisher: University of Arizona Press OUR PRICE: $15.26 Product Type: Paperback Published: October 2018 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Poetry | Native American - Poetry | Women Authors |
| Dewey: 811.6 |
| LCCN: 2017056371 |
| Series: Sun Tracks |
| Physical Information: 0.3" H x 5.9" W x 8.8" (0.30 lbs) 88 pages |
| Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - Native American - Sex & Gender - Feminine |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Instruments of the True Measure charts the coordinates and intersections of land, history, and culture. Lyrical passages map the parallel lives of ancestral figures and connect dispossessions of the past to lived experiences of the present. Shawnee history informs the collection, and Da's fascination with uncovering and recovering brings the reader deeper into the narrative of Shawnee homeland. Images of forced removal and frontier violence reveal the wrenching loss and reconfiguration of the Shawnee as a people. The body and history become lands that are measured and plotted with precise instruments. Surveying and geography underpin the collection, but even as Da' investigates these signifiers of measurement, she pushes the reader to interrogate their function within the stark atrocities of American history. Da' laments this harsh dichotomy, observing that America's mathematical point of beginning is located in the heart of her tribe's homeland: "I do not have the Shawnee words to describe this place; the notation that is available to me is 40 38 32.61 N 80 31 9.76 W." |