The following is a recommendation to you! (Winter With Crows by Peter Blue Cloud)

I sit down. What shall this poem be about? I could write about my interests. Who wants to read a poem about running? How could I create an abstract poem about running that is romantic? I could also write about nature. That’s too cliché. Nature poems intimidate me. I have begun to stray away from nature because of its overuse. I felt that nature was too typical of poetry. I am fearful of my natural themed poems sounding too banal.

After playing inny meenie miny moe, for an hour in the bookstore, in the Brewer Bookstore I decided to purchase Winter With Crows by Peter Blue Cloud over Tess Gallagher’s Portable Kisses. (I am planning on asking for Gallagher’s book all about kisses for my birthday.) Portable Kisses, a book of poems strictly about “the kiss” includes poems with the following titles: Stubborn Kiss, Generic Kiss, Portable Kiss, Anatomy of a Kiss, The Kiss Joins the CIA, The Kiss Eats a Loaf of Bread, and many more. Peter Blue Cloud, sketches one theme, winter, through his collection of poems. I am interested in the way I can use these two authors to help my work as a poet. Gallagher’s poems can teach me how to take a simple idea or object and break it down. I could use a sneaker or running and make complex all that goes into this simple idea. Peter Blue Cloud has helped me to see how nature can be romantic without being cheesy. Winter Sketches, Winter Food, Winter Crows, Winter Snow, Winter Fire, Winter Song, Winter Dancer, and a few more, all by Cloud, are very short poems, which represent different aspects of winter in a very refreshing way. After reading a few of these eight line poems of simplicity one can only breathe it in. I can’t explain how it is to read such a short and meaningful poem. Cloud uses few and simple words to communicate a beautiful picture. I enjoy the shortness of these few in his book. I sometimes struggle with the length of our assignments. I wish to leave subtly without saying much, but meaning more. My words catch up to me and there is not beauty in my rambling words.

The following is a recommendation to you! (Winter With Crows by Peter Blue Cloud)

His words are simple and delicate yet portray meaning that leaves the reader just about breathless by its beauty. Don’t be shied away from this romantic sounding book. Not being a fan of overly romantic poems, Cloud captured my attention and held it throughout this representation of nature. His words create a relationship between the author and the reader without any previous association. If you are unfamiliar with Northern winters, Peter Blue Cloud will fill you in. If you lack the awareness of nature, in general, Peter Blue Cloud will help open you up to mother earth in Winter With Crows.
Commencing from Peter Blue Clouds Mohawk background, he takes this symbolic animal, the crow, and tells a story of its importance. The crow is considered a “trickster” of the Nations. The bird of humor assists in narrating the Nations traditions of society. This is seen most clearly in the third and final section of Winter With Clouds. “White Corn Sister” is a play of voices which speaker one and two, the medicine man, the hunter, the woman and the clan mother all share a separate perspective and piece in the poem.
Cloud presents his poems with an equal division between verse and prose. The enjambment, short lines, many commas, little periods, and no apparent rhyme scheme creates an initial hesitation. Yet only after a few lines, the reading of Cloud’s pieces is like marching to a drum. He uses more of the Mohawk tradition, drumming, as a way to progress his poems forward. Although, Cloud has a tradition of his own, the poems, and his own background, I would compare his work to E.E. Cummings, specifically, “Next to of course god America i.” Specifically in this poem of Cummings’, he like Cloud uses enjambment and also a choppy structured. Although it may take some getting used to, this tradition has a purpose behind. The two men are portraying personal issues that are relative in their form. A reader will pick up on the popular lines from Cummings as the choppy wording in some of Cloud’s work resembles the language of his background. His purpose is to give the reader a taste of his history and differences in language.
The ending of this book contains the longest poem of many voices unique to the Mohawk community. This closes the book very well, by continuing the theme yet also including all of the concerns. The medicine man and the hunter like all the members have different perspectives in the village. The clan mother helps to resolve these concerns and portrays the importance of Mohawk heritage, “that a Nation lives.” I cannot find any issues that I would advise being left out or altered. The topic is very narrow which may be repellent to some, but the history is important to Cloud. I believe his representation in such a romantic way is entertaining, informing and enjoyable for those who can relate directly, yet also to those who are first to be informed.