Reading “Elegy Against Elegy” by Kenzie Allen
Poetry Lunch S6E9
Reading “Elegy Against Elegy” by Kenzie Allen from Cloud Missives, Tin House Books.
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A beautiful poem that speaks of what’s past as also being ahead of us — from the edges of the sky to the pulling of the tide, what’s gone gives back and we’re asked, “What will you give back?” By a voice long gone, that’s warm and alive.
I love how this poem holds human passing in the wide embrace of the natural world, locating our selves and our loved ones firmly in the ground we’re all walking on. I’m grateful for the connections I have with the land I live on and was raised by and I know those relationships are informed by the people who lived here first, before my ancestors came which was not so long ago. Blink of an eye, all things considered.
I’m grateful to all the lives, human and more than human alike, who have loved and cared for this land so far beyond and before me.
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Related print
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Links to purchase
Get the book: Cloud Missives and the print: Few Moments.
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About the Author
Kenzie Allen is a Haudenosaunee poet and multimodal artist. A finalist for the National Poetry Series, she is currently an Assistant Professor of English at York University. She is a first-generation descendant of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. You can read more about her on her website here.
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Credits
Big gratitude to Kenzie for the deep time I know she’s spent with these words and thanks to Tin House for getting this book in our hands!
