Winter Woman

By Jennifer Lynn Soule

The beauty and hard truth of the poems in Winter Woman can help us unite and survive as a people. In "Wind," Jennifer Soule writes about the South Dakota landscape: she and the motorcycle become one with the wind. In another poem she "walks out to meet the November sunset." In "September Departs," the annual planting of tubers contrasts with the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Haunting Soule's book are oppressed and impoverished people: A young Lakota man is found "stuffed dead into a trash can" and the ghosts of Long Time Owl Woman and others roam the golf course, built over the graves of 189 souls. Some of Soule's poems integrate historic documents revealing abuse suffered by Native Americans in the Hiawatha Asylum for Insane Indians during the 1920s and '30s. In "Hannah's House" a homeless mom gives her hooded sweatshirt to a shivering girl at the bus stop. When her own kids ask why, she says: "We all somebody's love child."

-Norma C. Wilson, poet and professor emerita, University of South Dakota

Soule's Winter Woman takes us through the evocative journeys of a South Dakota girl who blossoms into a well-traveled woman. Her poems take us with her as she touches down in Baltimore; Washington, DC; West Virginia; the Florida Keys and Alabama-and as the poet returns to South Dakota. "A woman born of winter," she says in the title poem, "I can enjoy the season and endure.

-Linda Tate, author of Power in the Blood: A Family Narrative

Backed by knowledge of cultural realities and the human mind, some poems deal with Native Americans in an asylum. In one, regarding babies born at the asylum, the ghost of Long Time Owl Woman says: "I couldn't comfort them / but then they were gone like the owl in the morning. / The night is my home. Sometimes now / I whistle to the dying."

There are fine poems about landscapes, excellent observations of animals, and many poems about personal relationships. In "Rita's Journal" a woman has "love troubles" when she meets a guy who starts "drinkin' and druggin' / so I did too. We slid down real fast into a big, / fat mud puddle. Split up. I like knowing / I'm not alone. We all got troubles."

I call this a wise book of poems. Take a look yourself.

-David Allan Evans, poet laureate emeritus, South Dakota

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1639806067
• ISBN13: 9781639806065
• Release Date: June 2024
• Publisher: Kelsay Books
• Length: 102 Pages
• Weight: 0.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"