LB Sedlacek reviews Septuagenarian

Septuagenarian: Love is What Happens When I Die
By Sherry Quan Lee
102 pages
ISBN: 978-1-61599-568-4
Modern History Press
Copyright 2021

Review by LB Sedlacek

Septuagenarian by Sherry Quan LeeSherry Quan Lee has put together an unsettling yet brilliant juxtaposition of sweet and sad, love and anger that will hit you right at your emotional core. The collection Septuagenarian feels almost like heartfelt portraits of pain, disconnection, and strength all rolled into one.

Her poems, though, delve deeper beyond emotion presenting lines that achieve poignancy with their build-up. Context is important with any poem and Quan Lee achieves that. Her poems are fulfilling and real.

Her approach is straightforward. Poems examining her life till now offer personal and compelling details. She invites us to participate in her struggle, her internal voyages throughout the years. Her descriptions are vivid and they allow us to see beyond the setting into her internal strife.

Each poem stands alone, but each poem complements the other poem before it. Same with each section of the book. The author doesn’t let you forget that she is human and willing to bare her soul within her verses.

It’s a well-crafted book. Her words will seep into your heart and then some.

Honor the Earth

978-1-61599625-4
$24.95
Indigenous Response to Environmental Degradation in the Great Lakes, 2nd Ed.
In stock
1
Product Details
UPC: 978-1-61599625-4
Brand: Modern History Press
Binding: Paperback
Edition: 2nd
Author: Phil Bellfy (Ed.)
Pages: 302
Publication Date: 01/01/2022

The Great Lakes Basin is under severe ecological threat from fracking, bursting pipelines, sulfide mining, abandonment of government environmental regulation, invasive species, warming and lowering of the lakes, etc. This book presents essays on Traditional Knowledge, Indigenous Responsibility, and how Indigenous people, governments, and NGOs are responding to the environmental degradation which threatens the Great Lakes. This volume grew out of a conference that was held on the campus of Michigan State University on Earth Day, 2007.

All of the essays have been updated and revised for this book. Among the presenters were Ward Churchill (author and activist), Joyce Tekahnawiiaks King (Director, Akwesasne Justice Department), Frank Ettawageshik, (Executive Director of the United Tribes of Michigan), Aaron Payment (Chair of the Sault Sainte Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians), and Dean Sayers (Chief of the Batchewana First Nation). Winona LaDuke (author, activist, twice Green Party VP candidate) also contributed to this volume.

Adapted from the Introduction by Dr. Phil Bellfy:

"The elements of the relationship that the Great Lakes' ancient peoples had with their environment, developed over the millennia, was based on respect for the natural landscape, pure and simple. The "original people" of this area not only maintained their lives, they thrived within the natural boundaries established by their relationship with the natural world. In today's vocabulary, it may be something as simple as an understanding that if human beings take care of the environment, the environment will take care of them. The entire relationship can be summarized as "harmony and balance, based on respect."
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