Another of my Prairie Lights poetry purchases -- I had to pick this up when I saw it because of how much I liked the collection Curator of Ephemera at the New Museum for Archaic Media. This is a very different collection, without all the QR codes, videos, and playlists, but I enjoyed it just as much, scribbling all kinds of notes down as I read.

I read this on a long drive to pick up our kids from my parents, and a few of these I just had to read aloud to my husband as he drove. The first two poems set up the collection and its theme of the tension between Native artifacts and monuments to the past and Native communities and people living today. The second poem, "Guidelines for the Treatment of Sacred Objects," is probably my favorite in the entire collection -- with its humor, dryness, deep empathy, and irritation.

There are also poems here that take your guts and give them a hard twist, most noticeably "Desecrate," which returns to punch to the word, and "Made in Toyland," which skewers consumerism, globalization, and wealth disparity.

This collection establishes Erdrich on my list of favorite living poets. I'll be sure to keep an eye out for more of her work. ( )