In this Book
- Instruments of the True Measure: Poems
- Book
- 2018
- Published by: University of Arizona Press
- Series: Sun Tracks
summary
Instruments of the True Measure charts the coordinates and intersections of land, history, and culture. Lyrical passages map the parallel lives of ancestral figures and connect dispossessions of the past to lived experiences of the present. Shawnee history informs the collection, and Da’s fascination with uncovering and recovering brings the reader deeper into the narrative of Shawnee homeland. Images of forced removal and frontier violence reveal the wrenching loss and reconfiguration of the Shawnee as a people. The body and history become lands that are measured and plotted with precise instruments.
Surveying and geography underpin the collection, but even as Da’ investigates these signifiers of measurement, she pushes the reader to interrogate their function within the stark atrocities of American history. Da’ laments this harsh dichotomy, observing that America’s mathematical point of beginning is located in the heart of her tribe’s homeland: “I do not have the Shawnee words to describe this place; the notation that is available to me is 40°38´32.61´´ N 80°31´9.76´´ W.”
Surveying and geography underpin the collection, but even as Da’ investigates these signifiers of measurement, she pushes the reader to interrogate their function within the stark atrocities of American history. Da’ laments this harsh dichotomy, observing that America’s mathematical point of beginning is located in the heart of her tribe’s homeland: “I do not have the Shawnee words to describe this place; the notation that is available to me is 40°38´32.61´´ N 80°31´9.76´´ W.”
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Title Page, Copyright Page
- pp. i-iv
- Acknowledgments
- pp. vii-2
- Nationhood
- p. 3
- Curving of the Corn
- pp. 5-7
- Claws in the Water
- pp. 8-9
- First Ranges
- p. 10
- Frontier Arithmetic
- pp. 12-14
- Correction Lines
- p. 25
- Auction of the Bonded
- pp. 26-27
- Allotment Line
- pp. 28-30
- Past Tense
- p. 31
- Metes and Bounds
- p. 32
- Greenwood Smoke
- pp. 36-37
- Timber Scribe
- p. 38
- Red Brush Surveyor
- pp. 39-41
- First Born
- pp. 42-43
- Land Colic
- p. 44
- Territorial Thirst
- pp. 45-47
- Compromised
- p. 48
- Eating the Turtle
- pp. 49-50
- Chains and Links
- p. 51
- Mississippi Panorama
- pp. 52-55
- The Coming Men
- pp. 56-57
- Pain Scale Treaties
- pp. 58-59
- Compass Rose
- pp. 61-62
- The Duck’s Egg
- pp. 63-66
- Blazed Trunk
- p. 67
- The Land Crow
- pp. 68-70
- Onion Skin
- pp. 71-72
- The Immaculate Grid
- p. 73
- Parting Call
- p. 74
- About the Author
- pp. 75-80
Additional Information
ISBN
9780816538966
Related ISBN(s)
9780816538270
MARC Record
OCLC
1050797028
Pages
88
Launched on MUSE
2018-09-07
Language
English
Open Access
No