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John-Kehewin, Wanda In the Dog House ISBN 13: 9780889227491

In the Dog House - Softcover

 
9780889227491: In the Dog House
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In her first idiom-shattering book of poetry, Wanda John-Kehewin combines Aboriginal oral tradition with dramatic narrative to address the effects of colonization, alcohol addiction, familial abandonment, religious authority, sexual abuse, and the pain of mourning. She admonishes humanity for its seeming lack of conscience in poems journeying from turmoil on the Gaza Strip to rapidly dissolving ice floes.

Cree poet Wanda John-Kehewin has studied criminology, sociology, Aboriginal studies, and creative writing while attending Simon Fraser University's The Writer's Studio writing program. She uses writing as a therapeutic medium for understanding and responding to the near decimation of Native culture, language, and tradition.


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About the Author:
Cree poet Wanda John-Kehewin has studied criminology, sociology, Aboriginal studies, and creative writing while attending Simon Fraser University’s TWS Writing Program. She uses writing as a therapeutic medium for understanding and responding to the near decimation of Native culture, language, and tradition.

John-Kehewin has been published in Quills Poetry, Salish Seas, UBC’s Aboriginal Anthology, SFU’s Emerge anthology. She has shared her writing on Co-op Radio and performed at numerous readings throughout Vancouver's lower mainland, including for the Writer’s Union Guild of Canada.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Mother Thunder

I only exist if not for the Alberta storms
that saved me from a life of containment.
I knew without a doubt there was hope
after mother thunder shared her fire and her songs
and painted a picture beyond my yellowing past;
possessing me with poverty and circumstance.

I remember mother thunders untrained beauty
calling me as always from a time before,
before my eyes were open and clear
and my spirit in denial and my mind locked.

I have not seen mother thunder
since I abandoned the Alberta Plains
in a fight and flight to see and be more
than the confines of the colonial walls
that seemed to wrap its arms tighter
smothering me until I should just give.
The reservation does not call me home
But I am reminded of home when my
Only lonely friend was mother thunder.

I miss the crawling lightening
And the day shattering moment
That reveals the stark of night striking light
That is mother thunders child called lightning
who is my friend and calls to me from home
who heightens, lightens and brightens
The exact moment that the rain fingertips
paint my face and I miss calling her name
and feeling her gentle anger ignite my fire.
Mother thunder who makes me dance in the rain
and stirs flashes of light across her cobalt canvas
and drenches me in her tears and benches me in white light
I miss the plains I have abandoned...


In the Dog House       

Teardrops hang from barren trees,
sickly grass slouches upon the
earthly bed- defeated, disassociated.

Cold, washed out blue,
flanked by threatening billows,
encircling and encasing the dog house
and the two lives buried within it.

She hunches in fetal pose
in the backside of the dog house.
She counts spiral knotholes,
seizing her breath,
tracing nature’s patterns,
now forced to be a part
of something else
 
Her something else-
Her somewhere else
She’d rather be.

She traces the knotholes
and counts them over, and over again
and feels a false consolation.
“Yes”, she says to herself, “still 7”

Indifferent splats of rain
rap on the weather battered roof.
Thin arms embrace shivering dog.
Listening for footsteps,
she hopes they are rain beats
or heartbeats,
and not footsteps.

Bone cold water
oozes through the cracks,
trickling, seeking end.
She can hear the dogs’ life drum
as weary as her own.
Finally, her lost breath returns
They both fall to sleep,

In the safety of the dog house.

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  • PublisherTalonbooks
  • Publication date2012
  • ISBN 10 0889227497
  • ISBN 13 9780889227491
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages80
  • Rating

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John-Kehewin, Wanda
Published by Talonbooks (2012)
ISBN 10: 0889227497 ISBN 13: 9780889227491
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