Cloud Missives: Poems

by Kenzie Allen

Each poem examines a mystery. Each poem has its own Indigeneity. Each poem is its own cloud missive. Intimate, dissecting, and liberating, Cloud Missives is a poetry collection of excavation and renewal. Like an anthropologist entering a dig site and unearthing bones, Kenzie Allen reveals a life from what endures after tragedies and acts of survival. Across five sections, poems explore pop culture―the stereotypes in Peter Pan, Indiana Jones, and beyond―fairy tales, myths, protests, and forgotten histories, before arriving at a dazzling series of love poems that deepen our understanding of romantic, platonic, and communal love.

Cloud Missives is an investigation, a manifestation, and a celebration; of the body, of what we make and re-make, of the self, and of the heart. With care and deep attention, it asks what one can re-imagine of Indigenous personhood in the wake of colonialism, what healing might look like when loving the world around you―and introduces readers to a profound new voice in poetry.

Genres: Poetry, Indigenous, Native American

128 pages, Paperback

First published August 20, 2024

Reviews

[Kristy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

Really enjoyed this book of poetry that examines trauma, the body, and more, investigating each topic like an anthropological dig into the truth.

I received an advanced copy through Netgalley in return for an honest review.

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Tin House Books (https://tinhouse.com/books/) for the ARC of this debut collection.

Missive: Noun. A letter. Possibly humorous. Often long.
Written to the clouds or in the clouds? Why not both...

The writing in this volume feels strong and centered on the body (as source of trauma, as loci of reclaiming identity, as necessary for liberation). "We tipped our throats to night showers / and tried to lick back stars the city had obliterated / to resurrect anything at all by taste, / their glittering signs and warnings." (from "Light Pollution") The word play feels spartan with the occasional noun made verb, but the imagery has a stark kind of luminosity to it (perhaps because it feels like Allen has stripped away the extraneous). It took me a while to get into the rhythm and style of her poetry, but once I did, I found the whole project rather moving, especially because an element of love and hope backlights the whole book. It's also incredibly layered with personal meaning/reference (kindly explained in the Endnotes) and cultural symbolism (some of which I likely missed). But why take my word for it? Just try out some of the pieces I've linked to below.

(Note: The collection will be released 8/20/24. More info about Allen available here: https://kenzieallen.co/)

"Of course, there was rebellion
in the household, Discord in the sleep cycles,
one too many DUIs;

dig the hole deep enough,
even middle-class money can't get you out.
... "
(from "Letters I Don't Send" #3)

---------------------------------------
Favorites:
- Pathology
- Piano Factory
- Draw the Human Form
- Sometimes When I'm Sad I think About Indiana Jones
- A Date with The Ghose of The British Empire
- Letters I Don't Send #3
- Palm Reader, Fifth Avenue (my favorite favorite)
- All I Need to Know About Love I Learned from My Fellow Primates
- Convergent Evolution https://therumpus.net/2023/04/04/nati...
- When I Say I Love, This Is What I Mean https://theadroitjournal.org/issue-tw...

-----------------------------------
WORDS INSPIRING FURTHER INQUIRY
psychomanteum | ischium | prognathism | phthisis | mizzenmast | lintel | nacre

[Andrea Blythe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cloud Missives is the debut poetry collection from Kenzie Allen, a Haudenosaunee poet. Her poetry is intimacy, intellect, spirit, and compassion. Drawing on her culture and experiences, her words weave through love and loss, history and present moment. Her stunningly beautiful collection “asks what one can reimagine of Indigenous personhood in the wake of colonialism, what healing might look like when loving the world around you.”

"What we have lived through settles
in the small axons, what we endure
whipped along vertebrae
all the way to curled toes.
We flinch, we fetal, we shrimp round the radiator,
we know the limits by the scale of a grimace.
We know it doesn’t end there."

— from “Central Nervous System” by Kenzie Allen

And I included this book in my favorite reads from 2024 list.

[Josie Wu · Rating 4 out of 5]

“the body makes room / for our favorite ways”

“like thumbprints in a browned thigh, / skin-memory ghosted white / like a lit-up MRI”

exploration of trauma, body, culture, violence, memory, nature

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to my dear friend Jesse, who gifted me this book.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just a gorgeous book of poetry. Lush and languid. Tangible. A window into a different world than mine. Physically evocative, poems with such details of the body that you feel them sink into your skin. Thanks to my @the_rumpus poetry subscription.
.
My faves were:
—the entire Letters I Don’t Send section
—Pathology (“were I beaten enough, even this / would be written in my bones”)
—Psychomanteum
—Determination of Racial Affinity (“How you can’t pull off your own skin / and ask your body questions.”
—How to be a real Indian
—Red Woman
—Sometimes when I’m sad I think about Indiana Jones
—Love song to the alpacas of Solomon Lane
—Love song to banish another love song
.
#kenzieallen #cloudmissives

[Ace Boggess · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful collection of poems. They straddle a line between bleakness and beauty, challenging the reader to think and consider, sometimes with sly sarcasm, other times with a philosopher’s (or anthropologist’s) thoughtful tools. The language is accessible without ever being bland. It takes the reader on interesting journeys, as with these lines from “When I Say I Love You, This Is What I Mean”:

“if I am the pigment and the vessel,
why not blue? Why not the light
through the fogged air of that mountain,
why not memory engraved in something
stronger, a stone arrow to arms
that were, and are, and are good.”

This is a fantastic book. Highly recommended.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection is for the heady, the heartbroken, the mythologists. There were moments in this collection I held my breath, stunned at connections I didn’t see coming. There were many moments I found myself tangled in imagery, trying to find my way. There are places in this collection for everyone to find something though, and for Allen’s revelations about the enduring-ness of life to startle you into the present.

I think my favorite part of the collection is the first section, “Pathology,” in which Allen dives in human ontology. How do our bodies exist in space—on stolen land, in restrictive presents—how do they bend, break, and decompose. In “Central Nervous System,” Allen writes, “what we have lived through settles/ in the small axons, what we endure/ whipped along the vertebrae/ all the way to curled toes.”

In another section, “Manifest,” Allen writes into and around different indigenous stereotypes from mainstream media, rejecting categorization and instead offering alternate history and myth.

The collection closes with “Love Songs,” a series of love poems that stretch out the ways we typically think of love.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Allen felt like a friend and tour guide, holding your hand while taking you through some uncharted and at times uncomfortable areas, but always letting you know she was with you the entire time.  A collection split into four sections exploring stereotypes in pop culture, histories, what it is to be Indigenous, colonialism, protests, myths, and love. Love in it's multifacetedness, and the perfect closure to this wonderful collection.

[Hector Jenkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection is so vivid. So full of life and pain and love and hate that it begins to become almost loathing of all that it feels in the best way. Before returning to the love that lead it astray in the first place with new found resilience.

Allen’s use of natural imagery mixed in with snippets of indigenous culture and history and the occasional ode to specific pop culture place in regard to how it portrays our people brings this collection somewhere really special.

Some standouts for me included

When I Say I Love You This Is What I Mean
Palm Reader Fifth Avenue
In Which I Become Tiger Lily
Love Song to the Man Anouncing Pow Wows and Rodeos
Central Nervous System
Morphology
How the Skin Bruises If You Lie Their Long Enough

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was gorgeous. The title led me to expect something ethereal and otherworldly--and many of the poems had that imagery/feel--but many were also firmly grounded in trauma and grief and science. It's so hard to summarize my thoughts about an entire book of poetry, mainly because poems contain SO MUCH MORE than a single story. I loved the scientific language, the series of love poems, and the simmering intensity throughout.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Allen’s work is infinitely personal, which was the ultimate pull of her work for me. Everything, from the body to her experiences as a Native woman, comes back to this grounded sense of identity. It gave the collection a center that made it incredibly readable to me. Highly recommend, and I hope to see her second collection published soon.

[Brad · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite poetry collections in recent memory. Everything here feels real, real concerns for the poet. I’m looking forward to more from this author.

[Caity · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m still processing these poems, but oh did I love this collection!

[Taylor Franson-Thiel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Got to read an early pdf of this for PD and lovedddd it. Great image work. Surprising diction/syntax. Very well rounded collection.

[Indovina · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, a huge thank you to Tin House for sending me an Advanced Reader copy! It was amazing to have read such a full-bodied collection before its release.

One of the biggest strengths of “Cloud Missives” is its cohesion. “Cloud Missives” is split into four sections: “Pathology,” “Manifest,” “Letters I Don’t Send,” and “Love Songs.” These sections demonstrate the sheer range of this collection. First, “Pathology” is about the body, specifically in the context of broken bones and chronic pain, as well as the way the body heals and copes with damage over time. Second, “Manifest” is about colonialism, and white oppression on Native American bodies and land. Then, “Letters I Don’t Send” is a mini-section that further personalizes this experience being on the receiving end of oppression and colonialism by showing how prejudice and violence operates within one of the most intimate spaces between people: a relationship. Lastly, “Love Songs” ends “Cloud Missives” by giving remembrance and giving ode to nature, family, Native American culture, the body, spirituality, and more. It also made me think about the difference between an ode and a love song.

“Cloud Missives” also plays with form by alternating the justification of the text, as well as playing with the indentation and spacing of the text within individual lines. For example, the lines in “In Which I Become (Skywoman)” pictorially demonstrate the feeling of a god plummeting down to Earth. Even though I would have loved to see more of this technique in this collection, it didn’t make sense for the more narrative poems that demanded a more traditional format.

Overall, “Cloud Missives” exhibits the fact that the connections between chronic pain and colonialism, the body and nature, the intimate present and the historical, and the spiritual and the earthly have always been present. As Kenzie Allen says in "Quiet as Thunderbolts," the last poem of the collection, "I've been / shell and memory, calendar and hearth."

“Cloud Missives” releases on August 20th. Preorder information can be found on the Tin House Instagram, @tin_house, as well as the Tin House website.

[Brice Montgomery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Tin House for the ARC!

Based on the title, one might expect Kenzie Allen’s Cloud Missives to be a collection of weightless, wispy poems, but that would underestimate how much heft the book actually has—these are storm clouds, capable of powerful and unexpected turns.

Most of these pieces circle the difficulties of Indigenous identity in a world where mainstream culture has reduced it to racist iconography. We see well-known characters like Tiger Lily or Pocahontas (TM) parasitically leeching off the speaker’s sense of self, highlighting the way colonialism is not a historical event—it’s an ongoing reality. The poet pulls off a remarkable balancing act in her ability to engage with these themes and images without indulging them, and it showcases how cohesive and intentioned the whole project is. The marketing copy for this book invokes Allen’s anthropological impulse, and I think it’s a great articulation of how rigorous this collection feels, both in its methodological precision and the way the speaker reconstructs the present from countless artifacts.

Another aspect of the collection I really admire is how each poem feels like the broken shard of a narrative—the reading experience is often like hearing a heated argument through a wall. There’s a groundedness to the language and a unique cadence to what the speaker reveals or withholds, and both qualities make for a book that seems certain to reward attentive re-reads. Periodically, it slips ever so slightly, as the “Letters I Don’t Send” section feels like a familiar poetic fantasia, but it’s only a minor dip in an excellent collection.

Also, “When I Say I Love You, This Is What I Mean” made me weepy. What a poem.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an incredible, powerful collection of poems. Allen is unafraid to engage with complex subjects; one poem finds a speaker on a date with the Ghost of British Empire, and it is a testament to Allen's keen wit and command of humor that this poem manages to be bitingly funny, poignantly insightful about the state of dating in the 21st century, and also a shrewd assessment of the lingering aftereffects of British colonial policy on the geopolitical landscape of today. Other poems develop extended conceits around anthropological and archaeological research, geography, and pop culture, which suggests to me that Allen has a restless, curious mind — an exceptional quality for anyone, but a necessity for a poet. This is a book that rewards repeated engagement. I'm already looking forward to my next reading of it.

[Nick Milinazzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

"But here I am, glittering daggers,
my robes a night without moon.

The earth will move to swallow
what has long ruined me ---

because we never lose our power, even banished,
even as graves turn slowly into castles ---

I am the well and the gate."

Throughout these poems, Allen explores numerous themes, all of which are connected by her heritage. Whether abuse, exploitation, trauma, or nature itself, each piece is framed with reference to her Nativeness, and often her own experiences. She has also organized the works in such a way that there is a progression as the book moves forward, beginning with pain and trauma and working her way to acceptance and healing. In every poem, the author digs beneath the surface to expose and examine the heart of the topic. She takes hold of her experiences and chooses to grow because of and in spite of them.

[Andy Oram · Rating 4 out of 5]

Allen excels at making each phrase open up a new view on the world. "Ribbons," for instance—a poem apparently about a love relationship but that ranges far beyond that—mixes speculation, lobely imagery, and questioning; pretty close to perfect. The "Letters I Don't Send" sequence even contains hints of humor, alongside a lot of tension and menace. As a tribute her people, the final poem "Quiet as Thunderbolts" is superb.

I like Allen best when she's not trying to make a point, although the points she makes about lost native culture, stereotyping, and human resilience are valid and worth making. In some poems I feel what she says "Why do I dig myself up again and again?"

[Craig Werner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impressive debut that puts Allen on my poetry radar moving forward. She merges personal experiences of violence and love with a story hinging on a recovery of her Oneida heritage. Lived, and sometimes evaded, experiences living deep in the body. Slightly uneven--no surprise for a first collection--but the high points are very high and the two poems that close the book sound an elegaic note that avoids sentimentality and nostalgia.

Poems to start with if you're sampling: "Psychomaneum," "Central Nervous System," "How to Be a Real Indian," poems 8 and 9 of the "Letters I Didn't Send Sequence," and the final two, "When I Say I Love You This Is What I Mean" and "Quiet as Thunderbolts."

[Kat Dixon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A competent collection. Its last section is, by far, its strongest. Standouts include "Love Song to the Alpacas of Solomon Lane," "Ode to Lookouts and Lighthouse Keepers," "With Thirteen Moons on Your Back," "Whatever Is the Matter," "When I Say I Love You, This Is What I Mean," "Quiet as Thunderbolts," "Pathology," "In Which I Recall the Flood as Pink Lightning," "Determination of Racial Affinity," "Morphology," "Repatriation," "How to Be a Real Indian," "In Which I Become (Earth Mother)," "A Date with the Ghost of the British Empire," "In Which I Become (Sky Woman)," and "Elegy Against Elegy."

[Tanya Sangpun Thamkruphat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Tin House and NetGalley for this eARC!

I recently took a one-day, online poetry workshop led by Kenzie and was excited to learn Kenzie had a poetry collection coming out. I immediately jumped on NetGalley to request this book. This poetry collection is a raw and deep exploration of Indigenous personhood, through tragedies, survival, but also celebration, in the midst of colonialism. I loved the way the collection was written, like that of an archeologist. It was such an intimate collection. I plan on re-reading the book and I can't wait for Kenzie's next collection!

[Mya Matteo · Rating 4 out of 5]

“We live through more than expected /

then expire, I assume, /
singing ‘til our lungs give out.”

[Nav · Rating 5 out of 5]

Felt this bodily.

[Andreea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such beautiful, captivating craftmanship in every poem.

[Ashley : bostieslovebooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s a softness that gives an intimate feeling to the overall strong writing. Each piece is unique while fitting together so well with the others. I really enjoyed this collection.

[Shelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poems about the indigenous experience.

[Robyn]

Notables 2024 # 172

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

lots of beautiful words in beautiful order, a poem about indiana jones, and a poem about crabs