A review by literatisara
From Turtle Island to Gaza, by David Groulx

4.0

We become aliens
strangers
outsiders
foreigners
unknown
in our own land
other

I don't know what I was expecting when I opened this up but whatever it was, it wasn't this. Wow. I was immediately drawn in by the title, the idea behind the collection of poems intrigued me. The connection or parallels between Palestinians and Native Americans was one I had somehow never made, but the moment I saw the title something inside me just went oh. Wow. Still, I didn't think I'd be as effected as I was. I opened up the book and the first few poems were nice, nothing too intense, almost misleadingly simple. Then one poem hit me hard, touching something in my heart. From thereon out, the hits just kept coming. The poems were short as was the book but I savored each page, oftentimes rereading words or really just letting them settle before I moved on to the next one. This collection was beautiful, painful, and heartbreaking all wrapped up in almost deceptively simple looking pages. I don't know how I came across this book, but I'm so glad that I did.