My initial thoughts: This poetry book was haunting. Her writing combines natural images with the gritty scenes of urban identity for an Indigenous woman, contrasting this overall beauty with dark truths. She writes the scenes that are so vivid and strong with a few well chosen words and lines, and it’s a skill that I admire. It was well crafted, guiding the reader through her childhood, youth, adulthood, and showed us insights into her thoughts of her brother’s disappearance and later, confirmed death.
The death of her brother is showed across the book, first with how her friends admire him and giggle for him, and how she is unaffected by it. How he would tease and torment (depending on your perspective) her, and how their relationship had highs and lows. She shows how he disappeared, and how little was done to find him, and then, how he was found. Walking across the river, falling in, death, another drunk Indian. It’s sad, and oddly reminiscent of the stories we still hear today about missing and murdered women.
Her last poem, I Am A North End Girl, is a symphony of voices and experience. It is hard to read, hard to find the joy within these lines that showcase the struggle that is at this world, and show snapshots of the moments that define the experience of what it means to be a North End girl.
This book made me feel understood. My experience as a Rez Girl is showcased in some of these poems, and there is a feeling that if she can write about what she writes about, I can share my journey as well. It’s a book of poetry that has many layers, and need to be read and re-read.
Book: North End Love Songs, by Katherena Vernette
