By: Rita Wong

Rita Wong — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:44:43 +0000

Thanks for your thoughtful response to forage, Mark. The book took form through a slow process – as Dionne Brand writes in her book, Land to Light On, “it always takes long to come to what you have to say, you have to sweep this stretch of land up around your feet and point to the signs, pleat whole histories with pins in your mouth and guess at the fall of words”
Lately I’ve been listening to how these histories sound from First Nations perspectives–at an event in Vancouver where a KI (Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug) leader, Sam McKay, (http://kitchenuhmaykoosib.com/) spoke about his nation’s struggles to protect the land as the global economy heats up the pressure to mine and endangers what is left of the lands they have always lived on. James Dennis of the Tahltan nation telling Shell that “Our land is our kitchen” (ie. don’t poison it) reminds me how poetry is embedded in daily life (see http://thetyee.ca/News/2005/03/07/TahltanResistanceGrows/ and http://wiinimkiikaa.wordpress.com/category/tahltan-nation/).
On another note, in light of your co-editing Visit Teepee Town with Diane Glancy, I wanted to suggest some summer reading that may interest you: Michael Blackstock’s Salmon Run: A Florilegium of Aboriginal Ecological Poetry -
http://www.noneuclideancafe.com/issues/vol1_issue1_FallWinter2005/blackstock.htm – and Marilyn Dumont’s That Tongued Belonging – http://www.kegedonce.com/index.php?p=featured_book
Best wishes,
Rita
Report this comment

By: beth

beth — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:00:26 +0000

Hi,
I found your blog interesting. I would like to invite you to join us and visit our blog. We are looking for writers who can contribute to our literary magazine.
Thanks.
Report this comment

Comments on: Forage

By: Rita Wong

By: beth