Description
An exquisite series of meditations on memory, evanescence and the land. Randy Lundy draws deeply from his Cree heritage and equally from European and Asian traditions. Readers will be reminded by turns of Simon Ortiz, P?r Lagerkvist, and Jane Hirshfield. This is the mind of prayer, a seeing and re-seeing of the immense cyclic beauty of the earth.
“Lundy has entered the place where the masters reside. His poems join the shades that walk among them. There aren’t many people who get to that place and sometimes it can feel very lonely there, but the masters are saved by the brilliant and humble work they have done, their poems the crevices in our lives where the light shines through." – Patrick Lane, author of Washita
“Randy Lundy’s poems bring forward the spirit of his Cree ancestry, and place our species humbly among the creatures of Earth—who are all observed with deep reverence and perceptive care.” – Don McKay, author of Strike/Slip
“This is the book of poems I’ve been waiting for … His poems burn us, feed us, and make us feel beloved even if we have been broken. Language, as he uses it, holds us and leads us to a place where we can mourn and pray and wonder.” – Lorna Crozier, author of What the Soul Doesn’t Want
Contributor Notes
Randy Lundy is a member of the Barren Lands (Cree) First Nation. He has published two previous collections of poetry, Under the Night Sun and Gift of the Hawk. His work has been widely anthologized. He lives in Pense, Saskatchewan.
Awards
- Winner, Saskatchewan Book Award for Indigenous Peoples’ Publishing
- Winner, Saskatchewan Book Award for Poetry
Editorial Review
Winner, Saskatchewan Book Award for Poetry, 2019
Winner, Saskatchewan Book Award for Indigenous Peoples’ Publishing, 2019
"What meditative power there is in Blackbird Song, what pure acts of attention and remembrance. Randy Lundy's poems bring forward the spirit of his Cree ancestry, and place our species humbly among the creatures of Earth--who are all observed with deep reverence and perceptive care.... We should be grateful to Randy Lundy for bringing his wise, wry, visionary, large-hearted meditations into language, and for demonstrating to his readers and himself the need for 'seeing with another kind of eye.'" —Don McKay, author of Strike/Slip
“Lundy has entered the place where the masters reside. His poems join the shades that walk among them. There aren’t many people who get to that place and sometimes it can feel very lonely there, but the masters are saved by the brilliant and humble work they have done, their poems the crevices in our lives where the light shines through." —Patrick Lane, author of Washita
"This is the book of poems I've been waiting for.... His poems burn us, feed us, and make us feel beloved even if we have been broken. Language, as he uses it, holds us and leads us to a place where we can mourn and pray and wonder." —Lorna Crozier, author of What the Soul Doesn't Want
