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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
October 9, 2022
It’s time to play that annual game! is the poetry bad or am I just stupid?
January 30, 2023
Excerpts:
How many times was I given up, left
for dead rejected objectified ejected
does it matter, still when
jump-started or just woke when unexpected to
always returning to the beauty of this world
abject misery layered still splendor despite
beautiful/horrendous juxtapositioning
throughout time
—
You were so sick, so internally embattled
suddenly a soft touch to the shoulder
ghost, maybe, until you glimpsed the opossum’s so-soft front foot
offering solace, companionship
touch in the time of despair
—
Let scowl rest, face relieve.
Let shoulders locked high, tight, recede.
Let feet cracked, worn, ease.
Let back, stiff, sore, bent open.
Let lungs swell breath like ocean.
Let all of us, all of us, all of us, let all of us be unbroken.
Take heart. Earth hears every tremble touch. Feels each foot. Listens now.
Bring her justice, protection, peace.
How many times was I given up, left
for dead rejected objectified ejected
does it matter, still when
jump-started or just woke when unexpected to
always returning to the beauty of this world
abject misery layered still splendor despite
beautiful/horrendous juxtapositioning
throughout time
—
You were so sick, so internally embattled
suddenly a soft touch to the shoulder
ghost, maybe, until you glimpsed the opossum’s so-soft front foot
offering solace, companionship
touch in the time of despair
—
Let scowl rest, face relieve.
Let shoulders locked high, tight, recede.
Let feet cracked, worn, ease.
Let back, stiff, sore, bent open.
Let lungs swell breath like ocean.
Let all of us, all of us, all of us, let all of us be unbroken.
Take heart. Earth hears every tremble touch. Feels each foot. Listens now.
Bring her justice, protection, peace.
January 1, 2023
“In a world fast shaking herself loose from diabolical torrent. Rising throttle song above throttled breath choked out between calligraphies, madness clenched fury unfurled release misery met in each pummeled break it’s not over.”
“How many times was I given up, left for dead rejected objectified ejected does it matter, still when jump-started or just woke when unexpected to always returning to the beauty of this world abject misery layered still splendor despite beautiful/horrendous juxtapositioning throughout time.”
These are so powerful, some of the most powerful poetry I have ever read. Using language in this poetic way to memorialize the losses, endangerments, and hell of colonization and genocide, and still, still Hoping, still Loving, still standing in solidarity to the planet, my god, how beautiful. We are asked to learn from indigenous voice, we are asked to become native to this place, to love it, and I am and I am trying. I am going through a little bit of a funk, not sure it is worth it anymore, what I do, but this type of poetry makes me remember I can’t stop, it is who I am now, it is in my blood and bone, and I am grateful for every day of it, and every sorrow, and every depression, and for the wisdom and stories indigenous voices are singing for us. Listen.
Blankets, all blue as well, some with black some with red, yellow to bring sun into this longing place, this place of loss, longing. Throughout childhood, we never cherished it. In her pyre, we gathered all of these with her, let it smolder loved.
Equations made to name propensities, longing, departures, intrusion, infusions, all as one needs to be viable in the state or lack thereof. Where man goes, comes inevitable loss, it was always this way, intrusion, infusions, all as one needs. After tens of thousands of generations, now lain a mile or so deep under grounds long overwashed in a world gone awry, the remains of the day buried by the flow and ebb to it. This morning 185 mph winds wind.
Here, we once knew balance, achieved it, lived it. Any one of them left to themselves if they maneuvered away from agreement reached with all of the natural world. Where only one of the many now overthrown and imbalanced by intrusion by who left ideology of balance for warscapes, resourcing, in a way tangled to harness everything met.
There is not joy in it and man is now the antibiosis symbiotic relation shared with all completely unearthed scathed, hotter, only those who see past retain understanding time, place, safety give back to keep balance sure, a timely whole equal, many trees canopy, rain, give life again to the spark of energy necessary to star starwood reborn again lifting lights on deserts over geological spots giving spherical visitations.
Take heart. Earth hears every tremble touch. Feels each foot. Listens now. Bring her justice, protection, peace.
By the sixth, extinction translates to which way the wind blows, by seventh, species are temporary, expendable, nothing matches life.
Abalone, White Point Conception, to Punta Abreojos marine snail, mollusk, spiral, sea ear, mother, bowl Albatross, short tailed soaring on long, narrow wings, pink bill tipped bluish
Butterfly, El Segundo blue lays on coast buckwheat flowers, pollen nurtured Butterfly, Lange’s metalmark from riverine sand dune, buckwheat bound Butterfly, lotis blue one-inch wingspans southwestern edge northern blue Butterfly, mission blue lay dorsal side lupine leaves Butterfly, Myrtle’s silverspot lay on viola only, golf threatened Butterfly, Palos Verdes blue fog-shrouded, cool hills
Crayfish, Shasta dual swimmerets over volcanic rubble Fairy shrimp, conservancy complex wave-like legs beat Fairy shrimp, longhorn large stalked eyes, compound Fairy shrimp, Riverside
Frog, mountain yellow-legged Northern cryptic coloration, splotches like lichen Frog, mountain yellow-legged Southern variable dorsal pattern, lacks vocal sacs Frog, Sierra Nevada yellow-legged shorter legged, eats dead generations go at once if water dries fewer frogs found, fewer grow legs, loose tails thrive
Pikeminnow, Colorado Pupfish, desert Pupfish, Owens Rabbit, riparian brush Rail, California clapper
Salamander, California tiger, Santa Barbara Salamander, California tiger, Sonoma
Skipper, Carson wandering Skipper, Laguna Mountains Snail, Morro shoulderband Snake, San Francisco garter
Tiger beetle, Ohlone instars hatch green jewels Toad, arroyo sandy streamsides seal Tui chub, Mohave sole endemic Mojave River fish Vireo, least Bell’s riparian, moth eater Vole, Amargosa salt cedar your nemesis, invasive Whale, blue Mysticeti, largest giant heart big as bear sacrificed for plastic
Remembering the lives before them, we broke into double-throated song scales singing nothing matches life, recite their names now:
Ramshaw Meadows abronia San Mateo thorn-mint San Diego thorn-mint Cushenbury oxytheca San Clemente Island bird’s-foot trefoil Santa Cruz Island bird’s-foot trefoil Santa Cruz Island lotus Blasdale’s bent grass / delisted Munz’s onion Yosemite onion Sonoma alopecurus San Diego ambrosia large-flowered fiddleneck McDonald’s rockcress Baker’s manzanita
Hearsts’ manzanita San Bruno Mountain manzanita Presidio manzanita Morro manzanita lone manzanita Pacific manzanita
Lane Mountain milk-vetch Long Valley milk-vetch Coachella Valley milk-vetch Fish Slough milk-vetch Sodaville milk-vetch Peirson’s milk-vetch Mono milk-vetch Ventura Marsh milk-vetch
Indian Valley brodiaea leafy reed grass Dunn’s mariposa lily Siskiyou mariposa lily Tiburon mariposa lily Mariposa pussypaws Stebbins’ morning-glory
Catalina Island mountain-mahogany Santa Lucia purple amole
Orcutt’s spineflower San Fernando Valley spineflower Ben Lomond spineflower Monterey spineflower
Pine Hill flannelbush Mexican flannelbush Gentner’s fritillary Roderick’s fritillary striped adobe-lily Borrego bedstraw box bedstraw El Dorado bedstraw San Clemente Island bedstraw sand gilia
Baker’s meadowfoam Point Reyes meadowfoam Butte County meadowfoam Sebastopol meadowfoam San Clemente Island woodland star Mariposa lupine The Lassics lupine Milo Baker’s lupine Nipomo Mesa lupine Father Crowley’s lupine Tidestrom’s lupine
You think it’s exhaustive now; this is partial recount.
How many villages could be missionized, enslaved for one mission? Led by Father Junípero Serra
Santa Inez Mission: Achillimo, Aguama, Ahuamhoue, Akachumas, Akaitsuk, Alahulapgas, Alizway, Asiuhuil, Awashlaurk, Calahuasa, Cascel, Cholicus, Chumuchu,
Saptuui, Sauchu, Shopeshno, Sikitipuc, Sisuchi, Situchi, Sotonoemu, Souscoc, Stucu, Suiesia, Suktanakamu, Tahijuas, Takuyumam
San Miguel Island:
Santa Rosa Island: Kshiwukciwu, Lilibeque, Muoc, Ninumu, Níquesesquelua, Niquipos, Patiquilid,
Santa Cruz Island: Alali, Chalosas, Chosho, Coycoy, Estocoloco, Hahas, Hitschowon, Klakaamu,
Purísima Mission: Alacupusyuen, Ausion, Esmischue, Esnispele, Espiiluima, Estait, Fax, Guaslaique, Huasna, Huenejel, Huenepel, Husistaic, Ialatnma, Jlaacs
Santa Barbara Mission: Alcax, Alican, Alpincha, Alwathalama, Amolomol, Anejue, Awhawhilashmu, Cajats, Cajpilili, Casalic, Cashwah, Chiuchin, Cholosoc, Chuah, Cinihuay, Cuyamus, Eleunaxciay, Eljman, Eluaxcu, Estuc, Geliac, Gleuaxcuqu, Guainonost, Guina, Hanava, Hello, Huelemin,
Otenashmoo, Salpilel, Sayokinck, Sihuicom, Silpoponemew, Sinicon, Sisahiahut, Sisuch, Snihuax, Sopone, Taxlipu, Texmaw, Xalanaj, Xalou.
Miscellaneous: Anacoat, Anacot, Antap, Aogni, Asimu, Bis, Caacat, Casnahacmo, Casunalmo, Cayeguas, Chwaiyok, Cicacut, Ciucut, Ciyuktun, Elquis
Koiyo, Kuiyamu, Lohastahni, Mahahal, Malhokshe, Malito, Malulowoni, Maquinanoa, Masewuk, Mershom, Michiyu, Micoma, Misesopano, Mishapsna, Misinagua, Mismatuk,
Olesino, Onkot, Onomio, Opia, Opistopia, Paltatre, Partocac, Potoltuc, Pualnacatup
Tallapoolina, Temeteti, Tocane, Topotopow, Tukachkach, Tushumu, Upop, Walektre, Wihatset, Xabaagua, Xagua, Xocotoc, Yutum.
Chumash Tribe The Santa Rosa islanders, of the Chumashan family of California.
How many massacres? Sacramento River Massacre Klamath Lake Massacre Sutter Buttes Massacre Pauma Massacre Temecula Massacre Rancheria Tulea Massacre Kern and Sutter Massacres Konkow Maidu Slaver Massacre
Pit River Massacre Chico Creek Massacre Massacre at Bloody Rock Indian Island Massacre Keyesville Massacre Konkow Trail of Tears Massacre
Land of the— war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide without limitations, statute.
It’s called a genocide. That’s what it was. A genocide. [There’s] no other way to describe it and that’s the way it needs to be described in the history books. And so I’m here to say the following: I’m sorry on behalf of the state of California. 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom
How many times was I given up, left for dead rejected objectified ejected does it matter, still when jump-started or just woke when unexpected to always returning to the beauty of this world abject misery layered still splendor despite beautiful/horrendous juxtapositioning throughout time
Look at This Blue Mission blue butterfly from coastal chaparral, grasslands, Mission District San Francisco, Twin Peaks, Marin County most upon San Bruno Mountain small, delicate gossamer-winged male, iridescent blue-lavender female, dark brown, blue base fringed in long, white hair-like scales undersides spotted wingspread 1-1.5 inches
caterpillars solely ingest native California lupine, eat silver, summer, varicolor lupine, adults drink flower nectar, buckwheat, golden asters, wild hyacinths endangered first by development; public infrastructure development projects remain significant threat
All along the wall Indigenous remains were unearthed from centuries of rest we are restless
Not breaking this up for comfort.
Look at This Blue Blue Whale alongside Monterrey, San Diego, Baja gentle giant heaviest animal to ever live on earth, twice Argentinosaurus ship strikes kill eleven per year, U.S. West Coast, with ship increase population will be depleted, noise, military testing, sonic battery, chemicals, plastics krill, anchovy, tiny fish, tiny crustaceans absorb microplastics a blue whale eats between two and four tons of krill per day —blue with belly full of plastics—
“How many times was I given up, left for dead rejected objectified ejected does it matter, still when jump-started or just woke when unexpected to always returning to the beauty of this world abject misery layered still splendor despite beautiful/horrendous juxtapositioning throughout time.”
These are so powerful, some of the most powerful poetry I have ever read. Using language in this poetic way to memorialize the losses, endangerments, and hell of colonization and genocide, and still, still Hoping, still Loving, still standing in solidarity to the planet, my god, how beautiful. We are asked to learn from indigenous voice, we are asked to become native to this place, to love it, and I am and I am trying. I am going through a little bit of a funk, not sure it is worth it anymore, what I do, but this type of poetry makes me remember I can’t stop, it is who I am now, it is in my blood and bone, and I am grateful for every day of it, and every sorrow, and every depression, and for the wisdom and stories indigenous voices are singing for us. Listen.
Blankets, all blue as well, some with black some with red, yellow to bring sun into this longing place, this place of loss, longing. Throughout childhood, we never cherished it. In her pyre, we gathered all of these with her, let it smolder loved.
Equations made to name propensities, longing, departures, intrusion, infusions, all as one needs to be viable in the state or lack thereof. Where man goes, comes inevitable loss, it was always this way, intrusion, infusions, all as one needs. After tens of thousands of generations, now lain a mile or so deep under grounds long overwashed in a world gone awry, the remains of the day buried by the flow and ebb to it. This morning 185 mph winds wind.
Here, we once knew balance, achieved it, lived it. Any one of them left to themselves if they maneuvered away from agreement reached with all of the natural world. Where only one of the many now overthrown and imbalanced by intrusion by who left ideology of balance for warscapes, resourcing, in a way tangled to harness everything met.
There is not joy in it and man is now the antibiosis symbiotic relation shared with all completely unearthed scathed, hotter, only those who see past retain understanding time, place, safety give back to keep balance sure, a timely whole equal, many trees canopy, rain, give life again to the spark of energy necessary to star starwood reborn again lifting lights on deserts over geological spots giving spherical visitations.
Take heart. Earth hears every tremble touch. Feels each foot. Listens now. Bring her justice, protection, peace.
By the sixth, extinction translates to which way the wind blows, by seventh, species are temporary, expendable, nothing matches life.
Abalone, White Point Conception, to Punta Abreojos marine snail, mollusk, spiral, sea ear, mother, bowl Albatross, short tailed soaring on long, narrow wings, pink bill tipped bluish
Butterfly, El Segundo blue lays on coast buckwheat flowers, pollen nurtured Butterfly, Lange’s metalmark from riverine sand dune, buckwheat bound Butterfly, lotis blue one-inch wingspans southwestern edge northern blue Butterfly, mission blue lay dorsal side lupine leaves Butterfly, Myrtle’s silverspot lay on viola only, golf threatened Butterfly, Palos Verdes blue fog-shrouded, cool hills
Crayfish, Shasta dual swimmerets over volcanic rubble Fairy shrimp, conservancy complex wave-like legs beat Fairy shrimp, longhorn large stalked eyes, compound Fairy shrimp, Riverside
Frog, mountain yellow-legged Northern cryptic coloration, splotches like lichen Frog, mountain yellow-legged Southern variable dorsal pattern, lacks vocal sacs Frog, Sierra Nevada yellow-legged shorter legged, eats dead generations go at once if water dries fewer frogs found, fewer grow legs, loose tails thrive
Pikeminnow, Colorado Pupfish, desert Pupfish, Owens Rabbit, riparian brush Rail, California clapper
Salamander, California tiger, Santa Barbara Salamander, California tiger, Sonoma
Skipper, Carson wandering Skipper, Laguna Mountains Snail, Morro shoulderband Snake, San Francisco garter
Tiger beetle, Ohlone instars hatch green jewels Toad, arroyo sandy streamsides seal Tui chub, Mohave sole endemic Mojave River fish Vireo, least Bell’s riparian, moth eater Vole, Amargosa salt cedar your nemesis, invasive Whale, blue Mysticeti, largest giant heart big as bear sacrificed for plastic
Remembering the lives before them, we broke into double-throated song scales singing nothing matches life, recite their names now:
Ramshaw Meadows abronia San Mateo thorn-mint San Diego thorn-mint Cushenbury oxytheca San Clemente Island bird’s-foot trefoil Santa Cruz Island bird’s-foot trefoil Santa Cruz Island lotus Blasdale’s bent grass / delisted Munz’s onion Yosemite onion Sonoma alopecurus San Diego ambrosia large-flowered fiddleneck McDonald’s rockcress Baker’s manzanita
Hearsts’ manzanita San Bruno Mountain manzanita Presidio manzanita Morro manzanita lone manzanita Pacific manzanita
Lane Mountain milk-vetch Long Valley milk-vetch Coachella Valley milk-vetch Fish Slough milk-vetch Sodaville milk-vetch Peirson’s milk-vetch Mono milk-vetch Ventura Marsh milk-vetch
Indian Valley brodiaea leafy reed grass Dunn’s mariposa lily Siskiyou mariposa lily Tiburon mariposa lily Mariposa pussypaws Stebbins’ morning-glory
Catalina Island mountain-mahogany Santa Lucia purple amole
Orcutt’s spineflower San Fernando Valley spineflower Ben Lomond spineflower Monterey spineflower
Pine Hill flannelbush Mexican flannelbush Gentner’s fritillary Roderick’s fritillary striped adobe-lily Borrego bedstraw box bedstraw El Dorado bedstraw San Clemente Island bedstraw sand gilia
Baker’s meadowfoam Point Reyes meadowfoam Butte County meadowfoam Sebastopol meadowfoam San Clemente Island woodland star Mariposa lupine The Lassics lupine Milo Baker’s lupine Nipomo Mesa lupine Father Crowley’s lupine Tidestrom’s lupine
You think it’s exhaustive now; this is partial recount.
How many villages could be missionized, enslaved for one mission? Led by Father Junípero Serra
Santa Inez Mission: Achillimo, Aguama, Ahuamhoue, Akachumas, Akaitsuk, Alahulapgas, Alizway, Asiuhuil, Awashlaurk, Calahuasa, Cascel, Cholicus, Chumuchu,
Saptuui, Sauchu, Shopeshno, Sikitipuc, Sisuchi, Situchi, Sotonoemu, Souscoc, Stucu, Suiesia, Suktanakamu, Tahijuas, Takuyumam
San Miguel Island:
Santa Rosa Island: Kshiwukciwu, Lilibeque, Muoc, Ninumu, Níquesesquelua, Niquipos, Patiquilid,
Santa Cruz Island: Alali, Chalosas, Chosho, Coycoy, Estocoloco, Hahas, Hitschowon, Klakaamu,
Purísima Mission: Alacupusyuen, Ausion, Esmischue, Esnispele, Espiiluima, Estait, Fax, Guaslaique, Huasna, Huenejel, Huenepel, Husistaic, Ialatnma, Jlaacs
Santa Barbara Mission: Alcax, Alican, Alpincha, Alwathalama, Amolomol, Anejue, Awhawhilashmu, Cajats, Cajpilili, Casalic, Cashwah, Chiuchin, Cholosoc, Chuah, Cinihuay, Cuyamus, Eleunaxciay, Eljman, Eluaxcu, Estuc, Geliac, Gleuaxcuqu, Guainonost, Guina, Hanava, Hello, Huelemin,
Otenashmoo, Salpilel, Sayokinck, Sihuicom, Silpoponemew, Sinicon, Sisahiahut, Sisuch, Snihuax, Sopone, Taxlipu, Texmaw, Xalanaj, Xalou.
Miscellaneous: Anacoat, Anacot, Antap, Aogni, Asimu, Bis, Caacat, Casnahacmo, Casunalmo, Cayeguas, Chwaiyok, Cicacut, Ciucut, Ciyuktun, Elquis
Koiyo, Kuiyamu, Lohastahni, Mahahal, Malhokshe, Malito, Malulowoni, Maquinanoa, Masewuk, Mershom, Michiyu, Micoma, Misesopano, Mishapsna, Misinagua, Mismatuk,
Olesino, Onkot, Onomio, Opia, Opistopia, Paltatre, Partocac, Potoltuc, Pualnacatup
Tallapoolina, Temeteti, Tocane, Topotopow, Tukachkach, Tushumu, Upop, Walektre, Wihatset, Xabaagua, Xagua, Xocotoc, Yutum.
Chumash Tribe The Santa Rosa islanders, of the Chumashan family of California.
How many massacres? Sacramento River Massacre Klamath Lake Massacre Sutter Buttes Massacre Pauma Massacre Temecula Massacre Rancheria Tulea Massacre Kern and Sutter Massacres Konkow Maidu Slaver Massacre
Pit River Massacre Chico Creek Massacre Massacre at Bloody Rock Indian Island Massacre Keyesville Massacre Konkow Trail of Tears Massacre
Land of the— war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide without limitations, statute.
It’s called a genocide. That’s what it was. A genocide. [There’s] no other way to describe it and that’s the way it needs to be described in the history books. And so I’m here to say the following: I’m sorry on behalf of the state of California. 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom
How many times was I given up, left for dead rejected objectified ejected does it matter, still when jump-started or just woke when unexpected to always returning to the beauty of this world abject misery layered still splendor despite beautiful/horrendous juxtapositioning throughout time
Look at This Blue Mission blue butterfly from coastal chaparral, grasslands, Mission District San Francisco, Twin Peaks, Marin County most upon San Bruno Mountain small, delicate gossamer-winged male, iridescent blue-lavender female, dark brown, blue base fringed in long, white hair-like scales undersides spotted wingspread 1-1.5 inches
caterpillars solely ingest native California lupine, eat silver, summer, varicolor lupine, adults drink flower nectar, buckwheat, golden asters, wild hyacinths endangered first by development; public infrastructure development projects remain significant threat
All along the wall Indigenous remains were unearthed from centuries of rest we are restless
Not breaking this up for comfort.
Look at This Blue Blue Whale alongside Monterrey, San Diego, Baja gentle giant heaviest animal to ever live on earth, twice Argentinosaurus ship strikes kill eleven per year, U.S. West Coast, with ship increase population will be depleted, noise, military testing, sonic battery, chemicals, plastics krill, anchovy, tiny fish, tiny crustaceans absorb microplastics a blue whale eats between two and four tons of krill per day —blue with belly full of plastics—
July 14, 2022
Look at This Blue is difficult to pin down with simple categorization. It is one long poem in many fragments, and fragments within those fragments, and moments of recursion. Alice Notley describes the speaker of Look at This Blue as "the record," and in many ways this feels correct. There are points of fragmented lyricism, with an "I" recounting something or witnessing the world, but more often, it seems, the "I" is absent and the record speaks.
Hedge Coke spends much of the book in conversation with intertexts and sources, using found language, quotes, and juxtaposition to bring the record into focus. There are pages of lists whose presences carry so much weight by their aggregation: endangered species, native creatures of California, State-sanctioned massacres in California alone, white supremacist laws created to disadvantage or eliminate specific groups of people, etc. The record speaks and the "I" lives around it.
I almost felt battered back and forth by all of the recording and histories affecting presents, all of the things worth keeping track of but too much to hold in my head all at once.
Throughout all of this, though, a galvanizing force injects the reader with the desire for action and the need for balance and interconnection. I'm left thinking about Mariame Kaba's quote, "hope is a discipline" alongside this book. There is a legacy of white-supremacist violence in the US, and there are people and communities constantly working against it. Now, still, maybe even more, the legacy rears its head and Earth's climate trends chaotic. And we must go to work together.
Hedge Coke spends much of the book in conversation with intertexts and sources, using found language, quotes, and juxtaposition to bring the record into focus. There are pages of lists whose presences carry so much weight by their aggregation: endangered species, native creatures of California, State-sanctioned massacres in California alone, white supremacist laws created to disadvantage or eliminate specific groups of people, etc. The record speaks and the "I" lives around it.
I almost felt battered back and forth by all of the recording and histories affecting presents, all of the things worth keeping track of but too much to hold in my head all at once.
Throughout all of this, though, a galvanizing force injects the reader with the desire for action and the need for balance and interconnection. I'm left thinking about Mariame Kaba's quote, "hope is a discipline" alongside this book. There is a legacy of white-supremacist violence in the US, and there are people and communities constantly working against it. Now, still, maybe even more, the legacy rears its head and Earth's climate trends chaotic. And we must go to work together.
April 29, 2022
Dazzled under luminosity
nitric acid photons airglow field
100 thousand million stars in the sky road milk corn mush acorn
take some home
California, come home,
somewhere beyond brutal likes beauty,
unrequited,
requite now, quiet now, requite kindness
mutual aid, reciprocal abundance, beauty
as far as land is poppied, Chaparral roam, bladderpod stand
let this dream, breath plume, vascular thrum
strengthen (117).
nitric acid photons airglow field
100 thousand million stars in the sky road milk corn mush acorn
take some home
California, come home,
somewhere beyond brutal likes beauty,
unrequited,
requite now, quiet now, requite kindness
mutual aid, reciprocal abundance, beauty
as far as land is poppied, Chaparral roam, bladderpod stand
let this dream, breath plume, vascular thrum
strengthen (117).
July 1, 2022
Hedge Coke’s book is a prodigious “assemblage” from Coffee House Press, independent book publisher and arts nonprofit based in Minneapolis. Look at This Blue: A Poem links journeys in California’s ecological devastation, domestic abuse; military, legal and gun violence; species extinction, racism and Native genocide to her wish that “California, come home,/ somewhere beyond brutal lies beauty,” (p. 117) consistently populating with specifics:
“Mission blue butterfly, /from coastal chaparral, grasslands/… small, delicate gossamer-winged/…fringed in long, white hair-like scales/ undersides spotted/ wingspread 1-1.5 inches,” (p. 73)
“in 1929, the State of California forcibly removed/ 400,000 Mexican American people/ from their state, their country of birth.” (p. 96)
“Indian Act of 1850… legislature authorized arrests/ of any vagrant Natives to be hired out to highest bidder/ Native children to be indentured…” (p. 57)
These are punctuated with “There is not joy in it and man is now the antibiosis” (p. 24),
“Whale, blue/ Mysticeti, largest giant/heart big as a bear/ sacrificed for plastic” (p. 37) and list upon list of marvelous names and horrific decimations that yearn to be declared aloud in homage as well as shame, trumpeted toward action and change.
“Me, I’m scrambling just to hydrate, acclimate./
In the year Tom Petty wails, I said/
You don’t have to live like a refugee.” (p. 60)
“(E)nslavement, massacre, murder. /
California, free-soil state upon statehood, /
sold Indians as common practice…”
Who writes these “laws” for the dominators, anyway; to uphold rape, physical abuse and pillage on a cosmic and personal scale? Stevens’ Dissent in Citizens United, January 2010: “A democracy cannot function effectively when its constituent members believe laws are being bought and sold.”
Our hills run with “bloodied red wash,” “keeping in line with conquistadors” (p. 57) “countless Indian women and children./
U.S. Government reimburses their costs…
settlers massacred 300 Yuma/
gathered for spiritual ceremony near the head of Oak Run.” (p. 69)
“Solution set out in Vizenor’s /tribunals/
…Call for country, accountability, justice. /
California, California.” (p. 68)
I like the actual locations, persons and words she gets to by page 30:
I served these
children. Decades ago, one Olivelands seven-year-old
girl wrote,
my eyes are the green of August.
I still see her eyes, her August, now.
“Mission blue butterfly, /from coastal chaparral, grasslands/… small, delicate gossamer-winged/…fringed in long, white hair-like scales/ undersides spotted/ wingspread 1-1.5 inches,” (p. 73)
“in 1929, the State of California forcibly removed/ 400,000 Mexican American people/ from their state, their country of birth.” (p. 96)
“Indian Act of 1850… legislature authorized arrests/ of any vagrant Natives to be hired out to highest bidder/ Native children to be indentured…” (p. 57)
These are punctuated with “There is not joy in it and man is now the antibiosis” (p. 24),
“Whale, blue/ Mysticeti, largest giant/heart big as a bear/ sacrificed for plastic” (p. 37) and list upon list of marvelous names and horrific decimations that yearn to be declared aloud in homage as well as shame, trumpeted toward action and change.
“Me, I’m scrambling just to hydrate, acclimate./
In the year Tom Petty wails, I said/
You don’t have to live like a refugee.” (p. 60)
“(E)nslavement, massacre, murder. /
California, free-soil state upon statehood, /
sold Indians as common practice…”
Who writes these “laws” for the dominators, anyway; to uphold rape, physical abuse and pillage on a cosmic and personal scale? Stevens’ Dissent in Citizens United, January 2010: “A democracy cannot function effectively when its constituent members believe laws are being bought and sold.”
Our hills run with “bloodied red wash,” “keeping in line with conquistadors” (p. 57) “countless Indian women and children./
U.S. Government reimburses their costs…
settlers massacred 300 Yuma/
gathered for spiritual ceremony near the head of Oak Run.” (p. 69)
“Solution set out in Vizenor’s /tribunals/
…Call for country, accountability, justice. /
California, California.” (p. 68)
I like the actual locations, persons and words she gets to by page 30:
I served these
children. Decades ago, one Olivelands seven-year-old
girl wrote,
my eyes are the green of August.
I still see her eyes, her August, now.
Read
September 2, 2025The difficulty of this book is an impressive effort to preemptively elegize the stunning diversity of plants, animals, and humans that call California home. Its exhaustive prose is punctuated by moments of lyrical beauty, offering the only respite from the lengthy lists and heavy passages that record the climbing loss. This creates the anticipatory sensation akin to the uncomfortable quiet outside a hospital room waiting for the doctor’s prognosis–solemn, tedious, monotonous.
Another apt title for this anthology is a chronicle of a death foretold. Most impressive is its ability to stretch out its finite pages for far longer than its slim volume might suggest. In this way, it actively suspends the inevitable end.
Coke’s effort to mourn this world as it is in the process of disappearing is unsettling, like holding a funeral before the deceased has passed. This begs the question of ‘how can we remember what we have to lose?’ Perhaps as well as being a record, these poems are also a prayer. For and of the fast vanishing remains. As such, this catalogue of loss is simultaneously a celebration of life.
A fossil that refuses to die. The head hung on the wall.
The immeasurable grief hangs over the page so still, you can almost hold it. Yet it is realized only once it’s ended.
“Here in shadows, leaves
keep life close, fruit the taste of it, dusk, following
plant
rows around crates, comfort here, home
nothing like a bed under stars
when we need”
My favorite line. A good reminder that somethings, like fruit, are only sweeter with time.
Another apt title for this anthology is a chronicle of a death foretold. Most impressive is its ability to stretch out its finite pages for far longer than its slim volume might suggest. In this way, it actively suspends the inevitable end.
Coke’s effort to mourn this world as it is in the process of disappearing is unsettling, like holding a funeral before the deceased has passed. This begs the question of ‘how can we remember what we have to lose?’ Perhaps as well as being a record, these poems are also a prayer. For and of the fast vanishing remains. As such, this catalogue of loss is simultaneously a celebration of life.
A fossil that refuses to die. The head hung on the wall.
The immeasurable grief hangs over the page so still, you can almost hold it. Yet it is realized only once it’s ended.
“Here in shadows, leaves
keep life close, fruit the taste of it, dusk, following
plant
rows around crates, comfort here, home
nothing like a bed under stars
when we need”
My favorite line. A good reminder that somethings, like fruit, are only sweeter with time.
November 6, 2023
If there's one thing I'll give this collection is that it's very experimental and avant garde. All 120 pages of the collection are one continuous poem, and while there are implied sections and breaks, every page can be read as a continuation of the last. The form is fascinating and I'll give credit where it's due.
That being said, the content did not click with me. A not insignificant portion is found poetry, a genre which I rarely enjoy. A lot of the poem consists of lists and broad retellings of the environmental and cultural destruction of America after the arrival of the colonists. I think poetry about this topic is very important and can be very engaging, but I fear Coke's approach felt unmoving to me.
Coke obviously has great poetic talent that I believe has just been underutilized here. Some sections of the poem really are beautiful and sucked me in, but they were tragically overshadowed by the unenticing lines of broken reports on American history. For me, the best pages of the poem were the ones that didn't have a works cited reference in the back of the book. Had Coke written the full book with a more personal narration the way she did in a select few pages of this poem, I would have easily given this four stars.
Perhaps my mind will change in the future, but the broken diction, abstract narration, and lack of sectioning simply led to a poem that was both harder to follow and less emotional than I would have liked.
That being said, the content did not click with me. A not insignificant portion is found poetry, a genre which I rarely enjoy. A lot of the poem consists of lists and broad retellings of the environmental and cultural destruction of America after the arrival of the colonists. I think poetry about this topic is very important and can be very engaging, but I fear Coke's approach felt unmoving to me.
Coke obviously has great poetic talent that I believe has just been underutilized here. Some sections of the poem really are beautiful and sucked me in, but they were tragically overshadowed by the unenticing lines of broken reports on American history. For me, the best pages of the poem were the ones that didn't have a works cited reference in the back of the book. Had Coke written the full book with a more personal narration the way she did in a select few pages of this poem, I would have easily given this four stars.
Perhaps my mind will change in the future, but the broken diction, abstract narration, and lack of sectioning simply led to a poem that was both harder to follow and less emotional than I would have liked.
December 5, 2025
"I still her eyes, her August, now."
Allison Adelle Hedge Coke's poetry collection, Look at This Blue, savors and archives the breath-taking, violent history of California. Witnessing the sweat dripping off of California's landscape to admonishing the state's past and continued brutality against its own people, this collection is a journal of what it means to lose, to fall into, and to believe in California. As someone from CA, I am always touched by its resurrection in language. However, I felt that Hedge Coke's approach was overwhelming—throughout reading the collection, I did not quite understand how Hedge Coke wanted me to view California. Which is to say, her collection felt like a one way mirror whereas I wanted all the elements of its beauty and horrific past/present to be woven together.
"I never knew him before he assaulted me."
What was quite incredible about this collection was its research! This is what pulled the collection from a 1 star to 2 star review for me. I really enjoyed seeing the amount of labor Hedge Coke put in to archive California. There is love here in this collection, surely, but I wanted the love to be a chaparral.
Allison Adelle Hedge Coke's poetry collection, Look at This Blue, savors and archives the breath-taking, violent history of California. Witnessing the sweat dripping off of California's landscape to admonishing the state's past and continued brutality against its own people, this collection is a journal of what it means to lose, to fall into, and to believe in California. As someone from CA, I am always touched by its resurrection in language. However, I felt that Hedge Coke's approach was overwhelming—throughout reading the collection, I did not quite understand how Hedge Coke wanted me to view California. Which is to say, her collection felt like a one way mirror whereas I wanted all the elements of its beauty and horrific past/present to be woven together.
"I never knew him before he assaulted me."
What was quite incredible about this collection was its research! This is what pulled the collection from a 1 star to 2 star review for me. I really enjoyed seeing the amount of labor Hedge Coke put in to archive California. There is love here in this collection, surely, but I wanted the love to be a chaparral.
December 11, 2022
No
Nominated for a National Book Award in poetry, “Look at This Blue” is a book-length “found” poem composed from the historical record of California. At times heartbreaking in his historical record, at times hopeful in its chronicling of the state’s recent efforts to make restitution to descendants of slavery, this poetic rendering of the historical record teaches the factual record in a creative, important way. It stretches the bounds of poetic form and breaks through prior limitations of verse to enlighten readers to the boundless possibilities for telling truths in poems. The title itself is expansive in that it directs us to examine the total narrative of this planet Earth, this blue, on which we live. High praise for Look at This Blue.
Nominated for a National Book Award in poetry, “Look at This Blue” is a book-length “found” poem composed from the historical record of California. At times heartbreaking in his historical record, at times hopeful in its chronicling of the state’s recent efforts to make restitution to descendants of slavery, this poetic rendering of the historical record teaches the factual record in a creative, important way. It stretches the bounds of poetic form and breaks through prior limitations of verse to enlighten readers to the boundless possibilities for telling truths in poems. The title itself is expansive in that it directs us to examine the total narrative of this planet Earth, this blue, on which we live. High praise for Look at This Blue.
December 11, 2022
I read Look at This Blue after its selection as a finalist for the National Book Award in the poetry category. I'm not sure what to make of this book, as I'm sure many of its complexities and subtleties were lost on me, but the writing looks with an uncompromising eye on society and our lack of concern and appreciation for the harm we inflict on Indigenous and other structurally marginalized populations and on the planet we call home. It takes no prisoners in calling out the economic, moral, and environmental injustice of today's capitalist economies and structures. It is also an often beautiful, and as it should be -- poetic -- piece of writing. An extremely compelling read.
April 20, 2022
Poems within a poem. Each page or two reads like its own poem. But the poems are all interconnected one to the next and them all to the whole. A love poem to California. In the age of 45 and Covid-19, environmental and social issues past and present, so interconnected as they should be, as they are.
Beautiful prose, that did take my novice poetry reader self a bit to find the rhyme and style. I can see myself pulling this off the shelf and reading pages at a time.
Beautiful prose, that did take my novice poetry reader self a bit to find the rhyme and style. I can see myself pulling this off the shelf and reading pages at a time.
May 27, 2023
Ok, so if you had told me during the first 50 pages of this poem that I would give it more than 1-2 stars, I would have scoffed. It was just rambling nature words that I struggled to even skim at times. Once I saw the bigger picture, I was able to engage with the poem.
Still not a huge fan of the first 50 pages. 😆 But I can appreciate what they add to the entirety of the poem.
Still not a huge fan of the first 50 pages. 😆 But I can appreciate what they add to the entirety of the poem.
May 30, 2023
Meh. Read it as a ebook on the phone. The line break ups were horribly distracting--not sure if it was the same in print. It sure makes California and America look like the worst possible place in the whole world. Not patriotic at all, just one-sided issue after issue, if not an index of endagered/extinct species. Very little beauty to be found in this work. PHS
February 21, 2024
An indescribable, and sometimes difficult, poetic journey. At once resonantly beautiful and didactic—so many lists, but so important to name these things and remember them. Memorable. (2022/2024)
Here, streets lined with fresh
refugees, straggler homeless, cardboard
box men, prostitutes, pimps, beautiful
neighborhood people who teach me
you can get a great meal for $2 on
this block. How to eat with chopsticks,
which store gives free bread if you
don't have $.
— Allison Adelle Hedge Coke / Look at This Blue
Here, streets lined with fresh
refugees, straggler homeless, cardboard
box men, prostitutes, pimps, beautiful
neighborhood people who teach me
you can get a great meal for $2 on
this block. How to eat with chopsticks,
which store gives free bread if you
don't have $.
— Allison Adelle Hedge Coke / Look at This Blue
June 4, 2022
Look At This Blue is a harrowing, beautiful book length poem about California, Indigenous genocide, and mass extinction— difficult & necessary. Highly recommended.
November 1, 2022
3.5 for me
March 14, 2023
Painful. Thoughtful.
August 30, 2024
12/26
Sure. I like the idea of the book. A bit more than the execution.
Sure. I like the idea of the book. A bit more than the execution.
March 18, 2023
A devastating long poem recording so many genocides in California, listed across many divisions. The assemblage may be reclaimed at huge cost:
"100 thousand million stars in the sky road milk corn mush acorn
take some home
California, come home,
somewhere beyond brutal likes beauty,
unrequited,
requite now, quiet now, requite kindness
mutual aid, reciprocal abundance, beauty
as far as land is poppied, Chaparral roam, bladderpod stand
let this dream, breath plume, vascular thrum
strengthen"
P. 117
3.5
"100 thousand million stars in the sky road milk corn mush acorn
take some home
California, come home,
somewhere beyond brutal likes beauty,
unrequited,
requite now, quiet now, requite kindness
mutual aid, reciprocal abundance, beauty
as far as land is poppied, Chaparral roam, bladderpod stand
let this dream, breath plume, vascular thrum
strengthen"
P. 117
3.5
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews