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robinks's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
I really enjoyed a bunch of these works, although the order of the poems didn’t make sense to me. I particularly liked Run’n’Gun.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Blood, Colonisation, and Violence
Moderate: Death, Addiction, Sexual content, Genocide, and Gun violence
Minor: Police brutality
katharina90's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Many of the poems in this collection either deeply moved me, educated me, or made me laugh out loud.
Favorites include:
-American Arithmetic
-If I Should Come Upon Your House Lonely in the West Texas Desert
-Top Ten Reasons Why Indians Are Good at Basketball
-exhibits from The American Water Museum
"I have a name, yet no one who will say it not roughly.
I am your Native,
and this is my American labyrinth.
Here I am, at your thighs—lilac-lit pools of ablution.
Take my body and make of it—
a Nation, a confession.
Through you even I can be clean."
From: I, Minotaur
"2.
Because a long time ago, Creator gave us a choice: You can write like an Indian god, or you can have a jump shot sweeter than a 44oz. can of government grape juice—one or the other. Everyone but Sherman Alexie chose the jump shot."
From: Top Ten Reasons Why Indians Are Good at Basketball
"Only water can change water, can heal itself. Not even God
made water. Not on any of the seven days. It was already here.
Or maybe God is water, because I am water, and you are water."
From: exhibits from The American Water Museum
"Art of Fact:
Let me tell you a story about water:
Once upon a time there was us.
America’s thirst tried to drink us away.
And here we still are."
From: exhibits from The American Water Museum
"Police kill Native Americans more
than any other race. Race is a funny word.
Race implies someone will win,
implies, I have as good a chance of winning as—
Who wins the race that isn’t a race?
Native Americans make up 1.9 percent of all police killings, higher per capita than any race—
sometimes race means run."
From: American Arithmetic
"At the National Museum of the American Indian,
68 percent of the collection is from the United States.
I am doing my best to not become a museum
of myself. I am doing my best to breathe in and out.
I am begging: Let me be lonely but not invisible."
From: American Arithmetic
Favorites include:
-American Arithmetic
-If I Should Come Upon Your House Lonely in the West Texas Desert
-Top Ten Reasons Why Indians Are Good at Basketball
-exhibits from The American Water Museum
"I have a name, yet no one who will say it not roughly.
I am your Native,
and this is my American labyrinth.
Here I am, at your thighs—lilac-lit pools of ablution.
Take my body and make of it—
a Nation, a confession.
Through you even I can be clean."
From: I, Minotaur
"2.
Because a long time ago, Creator gave us a choice: You can write like an Indian god, or you can have a jump shot sweeter than a 44oz. can of government grape juice—one or the other. Everyone but Sherman Alexie chose the jump shot."
From: Top Ten Reasons Why Indians Are Good at Basketball
"Only water can change water, can heal itself. Not even God
made water. Not on any of the seven days. It was already here.
Or maybe God is water, because I am water, and you are water."
From: exhibits from The American Water Museum
"Art of Fact:
Let me tell you a story about water:
Once upon a time there was us.
America’s thirst tried to drink us away.
And here we still are."
From: exhibits from The American Water Museum
"Police kill Native Americans more
than any other race. Race is a funny word.
Race implies someone will win,
implies, I have as good a chance of winning as—
Who wins the race that isn’t a race?
Native Americans make up 1.9 percent of all police killings, higher per capita than any race—
sometimes race means run."
From: American Arithmetic
"At the National Museum of the American Indian,
68 percent of the collection is from the United States.
I am doing my best to not become a museum
of myself. I am doing my best to breathe in and out.
I am begging: Let me be lonely but not invisible."
From: American Arithmetic
Content Warnings
Moderate: Police brutality, Colonisation, Racism, and Violence
Minor: Sexual content and Addiction
dacha's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Colonisation
Moderate: Gun violence, Police brutality, and Addiction
readingbrb's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Addiction and Drug use
mandkips's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Racism
Moderate: Addiction, Gun violence, and Sexual content
Minor: Colonisation, Genocide, and Death
lowbrowhighart's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Violence, Racism, and Blood
Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Addiction, Gun violence, Mental illness, Genocide, Colonisation, War, and Self harm
gingerhoneycitrus's review against another edition
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood
Minor: Addiction
mxae's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
This is a beautiful collection that is full of pain and desire, of resilience and bravery, or water and green.
This is such an essential volume for everyone to read. It is the perfect volume for 2022, queer, indigenous, eloquent, raw, political and poetical.
This is such an essential volume for everyone to read. It is the perfect volume for 2022, queer, indigenous, eloquent, raw, political and poetical.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction
thecolourblue's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
This second collection from Natalie Diaz builds itself around water. Fluid foundations that see it moving from place to place, idea to idea, while keeping a cohesive rhythm.
Diaz explores the concept of the human body as a body of water - merging biological science with Native American mythology to form her own personal and political narrative - as well as the environmental dangers posed to the bodies of water on American land. It's a heady and commanding combination of metaphorical and literal rivers, and, of course, droughts. One of the more overtly political poems on this theme is the excellent 'Exhibits from the American Water Museum', told as a series of informational signs on the walls of a future exhibit about water, drought, Native culture, and colonialism.
Diaz explores the concept of the human body as a body of water - merging biological science with Native American mythology to form her own personal and political narrative - as well as the environmental dangers posed to the bodies of water on American land. It's a heady and commanding combination of metaphorical and literal rivers, and, of course, droughts. One of the more overtly political poems on this theme is the excellent 'Exhibits from the American Water Museum', told as a series of informational signs on the walls of a future exhibit about water, drought, Native culture, and colonialism.
Let me tell you a story about water:
Once upon a time there was us.
America’s thirst tried to drink us away.
And here we still are.
True to Diaz' previous work, there are flashes of startling humor, both in the Water Museum poems and in some of the included poems about love and sex. There are a number of sweet and erotic poems exploring the writer's queer identity and seemingly, paying homage to past or present lovers.
Also continuing a thread from Diaz' first collection, When My Brother Was An Aztec (which I loved), are tales of her family, and particularly her brother and his struggles with addiction. These poems are vignetted memories, some frightening, some achingly joyful.
I think I do prefer Diaz' first collection to this one, but this is still a masterful work from a poet fully embodied in her own power and vision.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction and Sexual content
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