no that's not
a ski slope
that's a mountain
we pray there. ~A Trip Through Paradise

3.5 rounded up to 4

Janet Marie Rogers is yet another poet who is all over the map with regards to my feelings about her work, and in her case I think this came down to two elements: one, the topics she covers, , and two, the free-form style of poetry she employs.

'Splitting the Heart' stays vibrantly true to Rogers's identity as a Mohawk writer, and explores the intersections of being a woman, being Indigenous, and being a colonized person.

There is a lot of joy in this collection, especially when she writes of family and love, in particular, the love between Indigenous people. But there's a lot of pain too, and she explores the interconnectedness of loving the people that cause you pain. She alludes to the alcoholism and drug addiction sadly common in Indigenous populations (this has been tied to many forms of intergenerational trauma, but in contemporary times to the horrific residential school system. The last residential school in Canada was only closed in 1996).

Most often Rogers addresses her poetry to her own community, but when speaking in anger (anger being the third emotion she draws from for this collection) her poems are addressed to the institution of Canada (though she has one poem, 'Just Try', where she complicates the separation between herself and 'Canadians' by pointing out that she is the one who is truly North American, which she does identify as, but that 'Canadian' is a label she rejects. However, though this defiance is something that is obviously important to her, in another poem, 'I am Both' she speaks of how exhausting that defiance can be and that sometimes it's easier to just "remain silent. I will hide my true blood and do everything to blend in because I don't care.")

The poems, especially those that are angry or sad, read as very visceral, and I was unsurprised to see that she is largely a spoken-word poet.

And that was my issue with this collection. I'm sure it would be amazing to get to see her perform her work, because many of them would certainly come to life that way, but flat on the page, the free-form technique didn't always work for me. Even less so when mixed with AABB rhyming, which can easily veer into nursery-rhyme territory.

Nevertheless, I know that that is just a personal preference, and despite it not being my favorite, I did still enjoy the reading experience, and appreciate the power that poetry has to tap into raw emotion in a way that for a lot of people is incredibly cathartic.