Review of WHEREAS by Layli Long Soldier

by beyza ozer, guest book reviewer

WHEREAS, finding yourself in a bed made of long lakes. WHEREAS, a poem that rejects a form/morphs a form/finds a form, a warm place to sleep tonight. WHEREAS, a language made of unsettlement & hills for miles.

Layli Long Soldier’s first book creates the space for all of this to be possible.

How do we make it through to the other side of the field? This is what I feel as if I'm being asked while reading WHEREAS, poems collected through a sense of movement. This movement may not always be gentle or wanted; most of it is by force. This type of force Layli Long Soldier confronts is filled with pain, the awareness of loss, & a need for political language to become a part of the world’s conversation, specifically about human rights.

Inside the wheels of wrist and hands, a white shore of book and shell.

I kneel in the hairline light of kitchen and home

where I remember the curt shuttle of eyes down, eyes up–

where I asked, are you looking at how I’ve become two?

—“Five”

Statements of WHEREAS come later in the book, one of the stronger sections that commit themselves to the reworking on United States apologies to Native peoples across the country. This is where the history comes in: the truthfulness that Layli Long Soldier delivers as a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation cuts deep through the stomach, the heart, the lung. Because this is a type of ache that is continuing. Because this is an issue the United States wants to sweep under its large, red, white & blue rug.

The WHEREAS statements bring the most urgent & timely pieces of the book into fruition—deep & staggered prose blocks that force the eye to move fast & slow at the same time. This insistence that shines through in Layli Long Soldier’s voice is so individual & so beautifully mechanic.

“WHEREAS her birth signaled the responsibility as mother to teach what it is to be Lakota therein the question: what did I know about being Lakota? Signaled panic, blood rush my embarrassment. What did I know of our language but pieces? Would I teach her to be pieces. Until a friend comforted, Don’t worry, you and your daughter will learn together. Today she stood sunlight on her shoulders lean and straight to share a song in Diné, her father’s language. To sing she motions simultaneously with her hands I watch her be in multiple musics.”

When the words in this book shine, we can start to feel the sun on our faces. These poems, their craft, & how they sit together side by side create a political structure that refuses to be ignored. WHEREAS asks readers to restructure ideas that are assumed to be too complex for any person to understand, because that is blatantly untrue. The facts are right there for you. The history is there. The present is happening all around us (donate to Standing Rock here). All you have to do is read it. Then, use the privilege you own to make something in this world different.

Layli Long Soldier is also a master of form, something that is impossible to disregard or overlook through this book. This is why that matters: form is constantly in a state of flux & so are the lives & generations that Layli Long Soldier wants to make known. This state of flux is a harmful one, shown through characters & setting—these Native people are still here with, were here before, will be here after those who disregard them.

“a per

son on

the far

left side

of the

poli

tical

spectrum

not mere

ly lib

eral

but more

radi

cal in

support

of so

cial

change to

create

ega

litar

ian

soci

ety

its left

ist left"

—“leftist”

WHEREAS is comprised of so many arts that make it the powerhouse of a book we all need to read, with its portrayal of menacing USA language & veracious short lyrical poems to long-form poems that turn into sequential magic. It’s also an amazing form of self-reflection—a way to cope through times of loss, anger, uncertainty.

I am excited for Layli Long Soldier & the new voice of contemporary Native American work that is coming to the world, now more than ever. This is because WHEREAS is a book of dual citizenship, an explanation of how it feels to be in two places at once. This is how everyone in America who suffers from oppression will most likely feel in times of societal injustice, which is perpetual. I only hope that I can look back on & forward to Layli Long Soldier’s work, the entirety of mystic truth that is WHEREAS, & those who will continue to speak the reality that needs to be spoken. For now, read WHEREAS. You can buy it from Graywolf here.

#bookreview #laylilongsoldier #beyzaozer #WHEREAS