it is better to dream than to face the darkness.
D.A. Lockhart’s seventh poetry collection, North of Middle Island, is a work that I struggle to share adequately.
Divided into two parts, the first half consists of poems in which Lockhart examines and reports on a “land that has been forgetful of its Indigenous past”: Pelée Island (resting north of Middle Island in Lake Erie), and the forces (both natural and colonial) that shape life there. Something is unsettling about the poems; at times, his descriptions would leave me feeling that I was in a remote space. He uses white space and words with equal skill, creating the feeling of quiet remoteness that one can have while in nature “alone” (despite being surrounded by teeming hidden life).
Other times, the world of the island is sumptuously painted: A sunrise is described as being “awash in a deepening bruise of our long waking slide towards morning and beyond”; the skittering of terns are “talons raking sand like a breath”; or, the rabbits (chëmàmsàk) kick up dust “as they dance from ditch to ditch” (the latter a particular example of the poet’s use of white space to simulate the darting of small creatures across the road).
Primarily in English, Lockhart weaves the Lenape language (of the Unami dialect) throughout the collection, providing spiritual links across time and space. (He shares a reference guide defining the words used; I wish I could hear how they are pronounced for the full lyrical effect I fear that I’m missing.)
the match to set the world sufficiently right.
The second part of the collection is a shift in tone (with a folding chair, one could say): A “rarely true folktale” originally told at the Moraviantown Big House Ceremony, and, (very loosely) based on the time that Saskatchewan/”Glasgow” wrestling legend Rowdy Roddy Piper spent on the island.
An epic poem that depicts several grand battles of gods, “Piper” is presented in a series of cantos, told by the poet playing tavern bard. In this tale, the island bears witness to a series of clashes between Nkuli Punkw (Lenape for the wrestler Goldust, who was “transformed, dominated by dark medicine” of Ahtuhxkwe) and the titular hero and “grand Saint of Piper’s Pit, vanquisher of the Snuka, tamer of Adonis’ mane, master of the Sleeper…”
Will the land be delivered from the evil of Ahtuhxkwe? Can our hero prevail over these “twenty four carat devil creatures”? It is a wild and delightful tall tale that I found enjoyable, once I adjusted to the abrupt change in tone from the previous section.
Two sections that place the reader in liminal spaces (be they in the natural world or a heavily blurred reality), but both are equally worthy of attention. I’m still unsure whether the two sit well together, but North of Middle Island is a curiosity worth grabbing a stool and exploring all the same.
About the Author
D.A. Lockhart is the author of seven collections of poetry, including Devil in the Woods (Brick Books 2019) and Tukhone: Where the River Narrows and the Shores Bend (Black Moss Press 2020). His work has appeared in Best Canadian Poetry in English 2019, TriQuarterly, ARC Poetry Magazine, Grain, Belt, and the Malahat Review among many. He is a Turtle Clan membger of Eelünaapéewi Lahkéewiit (Lenape), a registered member of the Moravian of the Thames First Nation, and currently resides at the south shore of Waawiiyaatanong (Windsor,ON-Detroit, MI) and Pelee Island.
About the Reviewer
Bryn Robinson (she/her) lives in New Brunswick, Canada, where she uses her PhD in experimental psychology to help her support mental health research in the province. She prefers contemporary fiction, narrative non-fiction, graphic novels and poetry that is emotional, reflective, and if it can do it with humour, all the better. Bryn shares her own work on her website, Campfire Notebook.
Book Details
Publisher : Kegedonce Press (July 2023)
Language : English (with Unami Dialect of the Lenape Language)
Paperback : 95 pages
ISBN-13 : 978-1-928120-37-7 (Paperback)