$6.58
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-70%House of Grace, House of Blood Volume 96ā
$21.92
$6.58The Story
Intertwining a lyrical voice with historical texts, poet Denise Low brings fresh urgency to the Gnadenhutten Massacre. In 1782, a renegade Pennsylvania militia killed ninety-six pacificist Christian Delawares (Lenapes) in Ohio. Those who escaped, including Indigenous eyewitnesses, relayed their accounts of the atrocity. Like Layli Longsoldierās Whereas and Simon Ortizās from Sand Creek, Low delves into a critical incident of Indigenous peoplesā experiences. Readers will explore with the poet how trauma persists through hundreds of years, and how these peoples have survived and flourished in the subsequent generations.
In a personal poetic treatment of documents, oral tradition, and images, the author, who has āblood ties to both killers and those killed,ā embodies the contradictions she unravels. From a haunting first-person perspective, Lowās formally inventive archival poetry combines prose and lyric, interweaving verse with historical voices in a dialogue with the source material. Each poem builds into a larger narrative on American genocide, the ways in which human loss corresponds to ecological destruction, and how intimate knowledge of the past can enact healing.
Ultimately, these poems not only reconstruct an important historical event, but they also put pressure on the gaps, silences, and violence of the archive. Low asks readers to question not only what is remembered, but how history is rememberedāand who is forgotten from it. Reflecting on the injustice of the massacre, the Shawnee leader Tecumseh lamented that though āthe Americans murdered all the men, women, and children, even as they prayed to Jesus . . . no American ever was punished, not one.ā These poems challenge this attempted erasure.
In a personal poetic treatment of documents, oral tradition, and images, the author, who has āblood ties to both killers and those killed,ā embodies the contradictions she unravels. From a haunting first-person perspective, Lowās formally inventive archival poetry combines prose and lyric, interweaving verse with historical voices in a dialogue with the source material. Each poem builds into a larger narrative on American genocide, the ways in which human loss corresponds to ecological destruction, and how intimate knowledge of the past can enact healing.
Ultimately, these poems not only reconstruct an important historical event, but they also put pressure on the gaps, silences, and violence of the archive. Low asks readers to question not only what is remembered, but how history is rememberedāand who is forgotten from it. Reflecting on the injustice of the massacre, the Shawnee leader Tecumseh lamented that though āthe Americans murdered all the men, women, and children, even as they prayed to Jesus . . . no American ever was punished, not one.ā These poems challenge this attempted erasure.
Description
Intertwining a lyrical voice with historical texts, poet Denise Low brings fresh urgency to the Gnadenhutten Massacre. In 1782, a renegade Pennsylvania militia killed ninety-six pacificist Christian Delawares (Lenapes) in Ohio. Those who escaped, including Indigenous eyewitnesses, relayed their accounts of the atrocity. Like Layli Longsoldierās Whereas and Simon Ortizās from Sand Creek, Low delves into a critical incident of Indigenous peoplesā experiences. Readers will explore with the poet how trauma persists through hundreds of years, and how these peoples have survived and flourished in the subsequent generations.
In a personal poetic treatment of documents, oral tradition, and images, the author, who has āblood ties to both killers and those killed,ā embodies the contradictions she unravels. From a haunting first-person perspective, Lowās formally inventive archival poetry combines prose and lyric, interweaving verse with historical voices in a dialogue with the source material. Each poem builds into a larger narrative on American genocide, the ways in which human loss corresponds to ecological destruction, and how intimate knowledge of the past can enact healing.
Ultimately, these poems not only reconstruct an important historical event, but they also put pressure on the gaps, silences, and violence of the archive. Low asks readers to question not only what is remembered, but how history is rememberedāand who is forgotten from it. Reflecting on the injustice of the massacre, the Shawnee leader Tecumseh lamented that though āthe Americans murdered all the men, women, and children, even as they prayed to Jesus . . . no American ever was punished, not one.ā These poems challenge this attempted erasure.
In a personal poetic treatment of documents, oral tradition, and images, the author, who has āblood ties to both killers and those killed,ā embodies the contradictions she unravels. From a haunting first-person perspective, Lowās formally inventive archival poetry combines prose and lyric, interweaving verse with historical voices in a dialogue with the source material. Each poem builds into a larger narrative on American genocide, the ways in which human loss corresponds to ecological destruction, and how intimate knowledge of the past can enact healing.
Ultimately, these poems not only reconstruct an important historical event, but they also put pressure on the gaps, silences, and violence of the archive. Low asks readers to question not only what is remembered, but how history is rememberedāand who is forgotten from it. Reflecting on the injustice of the massacre, the Shawnee leader Tecumseh lamented that though āthe Americans murdered all the men, women, and children, even as they prayed to Jesus . . . no American ever was punished, not one.ā These poems challenge this attempted erasure.
