Tùkhòne – Where the River Narrows

$18.95

Tùkhòne comes from the from the southern Unami dialect of Lenape meaning “bend in the river”, and is the name for the Windsor/Detroit region that the Lenape people once inhabited. Tùkhòne blends Japanese style poetry with traditional indigenous imagery and music from Detroit’s greatest musicians, to present an examination of the land that was stolen from his ancestors. Divided into two parts, one section focuses on merging Haiku with the moon cycle/calendar used by the Lenape, while the other section is made up of Haibun inspired by musicians such as MC5, White Stripes, Eminem, Stevie Wonder, JR JR, Model 500, Aretha Franklin, etc.

The book is at once a celebration of culture and a mourning of what was lost and can never be recovered. It asks the reader to take a second look at the scenes they pass each day and to stop and reflect on the meaning behind them. Lockhart’s honesty and lyricism adapts itself to the Japanese form seamlessly, creating a new addition to the Indigenous narrative of Canada and America.

SKU: 978-0-88753-615-1 Category: Tag:

Black Moss Editorial Team

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Although the title of this book suggests sadness and shadows, it also raises awareness and hope. Here to convey the losses and changes of Tùkhòne area, Lockhart applies Japanese lyric forms with his ances- tral moon movements and his lost dialect. We find ice, geese, medicines as well as church, bridge, bar and traffic; we hear tides, rail cars and gulls, we also sing loud and send prayers. Nature and the modern world encounter, collide and “dance” in Lockhart’s lines and mind. Following his riverside city tours and reflections, we see the pain, the suffering and desire to find balance and peace.

Anna Yin author of Nightlights, inaugural Poet Laureate of Mississauga

In this collection Lockhart has skillfully grafted the sensibility of the haiku onto the rootstock of his First Nation perspective. The result?— the separate vascular tissues have fused and grown into something new and densely rich.

George Swede, editor of Erotic Haiku: of skin on skin (2017), and helices (2016) winner of Mildred Kanterman Merit Book Award, Haiku Society of America (2017)

Additional information

Dimensions 6 × 9 × .25 in
Type

Paperback