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Walking With Ghosts: Poems
Confronts the legacy of land-theft, genocide, and forced removal of Cherokees from their homelands, while simultaneously resisting attacks on indigenous and gay/ lesbian/ bisexual /transgender (GLBT) communities. The Cherokee love poems, included in this book, weave into eulogies to the dead, while ghosts draw the living into a place of wholeness.
108 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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About the author
Qwo-Li Driskill
14 books141 followersQwo-Li Driskill is a Cherokee Two-Spirit/Queer writer, scholar, educator, activist, and performer also of African, Irish, Lenape, Lumbee, and Osage ascent. Hir artistic and scholarly work appears in numerous publications, and s/he performs and facilitates workshops at events across Turtle Island. Qwo-Li holds a PhD in Rhetoric & Writing from Michigan State University, and is currently an assistant professor in the Department of English at Texas A&M University.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 2, 2025
Unfortunately, this author has been exposed as a fraud, and has been claiming Cherokee identity despite Cherokee people asking them to stop for the past decade. They have no ties to Cherokee culture, communities, or heritage; they are quite literally a white person who decided to believe the family lore about a 'Cherokee ancestor', changed their name to sound less white in 2002, and then turned their false identity into a career.
With that knowledge, I particularly enjoyed the poems where they talk about their great grandmother, Nancy Harmon, and the anti-Indigenous hate she suffered, which sounds a bit unlikely considering Nancy Harmon was a white Irish-American woman. The poems where the author talks about hiding beneath their grandmother's skirts as she weaves baskets in the Indigenous tradition are also quite funny when you learn that the author was posting on genealogy forums in 2001 to try (and fail) to authenticate family lore about Indigenous Osage ancestors, having grown up within an entirely white family. The fact that the author also tries to reclaim the n-word in one of these poems, based on their 'African ancestry', becomes something other than hilarious when you look at a single photo of them. There's white-passing, and then there's... white. Which this author is.
I first read this book in 2018, but never added it to Goodreads, because looking at the photo on the back of the book and reading the poetry itself, with its stereotypical views of Cherokee culture and strange use of racial epithets, made me viscerally uncomfortable. I could tell that this author was, to be frank, full of shit, and so I buried the book on my bookshelf and never told anyone I'd read it. Now that they've been exposed, I feel comfortable saying: fuck this person. Fraudsters like this make it so difficult to call them out, because they worm their way into institutions and cement their position there in such a way that to call them out feels impossible - look at other frauds like Andrea Smith, Jess Krug, and Elizabeth Hoover. I'm glad this person has been rooted out, at least.
It's unfortunate that so much of their work within Cherokee gender and sexuality is now considered canonical, because they're full of garbage. It will take years to undo the damage they've done to the field by trampling over actual Indigenous voices.
Link to the Cherokee Scholars' Statement on Sovereignty, which clearly states that 'unenrolled' fraudsters like this should not be identifying as Cherokee.
Timeline of Driskill's bullying of students of colour at their university, and attempts to remove them from their position.
Edit:
I mean, come the flying fuck on.
I genuinely feel like there's nothing I can add to that.
With that knowledge, I particularly enjoyed the poems where they talk about their great grandmother, Nancy Harmon, and the anti-Indigenous hate she suffered, which sounds a bit unlikely considering Nancy Harmon was a white Irish-American woman. The poems where the author talks about hiding beneath their grandmother's skirts as she weaves baskets in the Indigenous tradition are also quite funny when you learn that the author was posting on genealogy forums in 2001 to try (and fail) to authenticate family lore about Indigenous Osage ancestors, having grown up within an entirely white family. The fact that the author also tries to reclaim the n-word in one of these poems, based on their 'African ancestry', becomes something other than hilarious when you look at a single photo of them. There's white-passing, and then there's... white. Which this author is.
I first read this book in 2018, but never added it to Goodreads, because looking at the photo on the back of the book and reading the poetry itself, with its stereotypical views of Cherokee culture and strange use of racial epithets, made me viscerally uncomfortable. I could tell that this author was, to be frank, full of shit, and so I buried the book on my bookshelf and never told anyone I'd read it. Now that they've been exposed, I feel comfortable saying: fuck this person. Fraudsters like this make it so difficult to call them out, because they worm their way into institutions and cement their position there in such a way that to call them out feels impossible - look at other frauds like Andrea Smith, Jess Krug, and Elizabeth Hoover. I'm glad this person has been rooted out, at least.
It's unfortunate that so much of their work within Cherokee gender and sexuality is now considered canonical, because they're full of garbage. It will take years to undo the damage they've done to the field by trampling over actual Indigenous voices.
Link to the Cherokee Scholars' Statement on Sovereignty, which clearly states that 'unenrolled' fraudsters like this should not be identifying as Cherokee.
Timeline of Driskill's bullying of students of colour at their university, and attempts to remove them from their position.
Edit:
I mean, come the flying fuck on.
High Yella Sonnet
Every morning I pull plastic comb though thick
copperbrown curls, stare at a face
ancestors kissed n colored with a trick
of high yella light. My index finger trace
my body's cedar n ebony trails
to colonization's pale n puffy scars: a steel bit
in my mouth, shinin web of rails
construct to open my interior, rivers covered in grit
n oil. Look at my hybrid corn n sweet potato skin,
yella as gold stole from homelands.
My blood aint subterranean,
I bear pockmarks of forged treaties, iron brands.
You call me watered down, say my peoples good as dead.
I laugh n stand before you, fullblood high yella, black n red.
I genuinely feel like there's nothing I can add to that.
July 21, 2016
In Seattle, 100 lit candles
(I wanted the city to burn.)
In San Francisco, a rainbow flag hung half-mast/
(I wanted the earth to split open)
In DC, the president finally spoke.
(I wanted screams to shatter glass.)
In Laramie, they wore armbands.
(I wanted revolution.)
(I wanted the city to burn.)
In San Francisco, a rainbow flag hung half-mast/
(I wanted the earth to split open)
In DC, the president finally spoke.
(I wanted screams to shatter glass.)
In Laramie, they wore armbands.
(I wanted revolution.)
November 3, 2017
This is not an easy book to read, and it shouldn't be. It took me months. One tear-filled poem at a time. There is a ring of beauty and joy hemming each poem in like a ring of salt to keep out despair. I loved the imagery and the heart and the life found here, even in the face of overwhelming odds.
June 30, 2009
This is a book of strong poems, it brings the reader through many emotions: anger, love, fear, sadness. He uses his words to educate, mourn, heal and take back power. He gives us his native language and traditions.
My favorite poem is his long one written after Reagan's death, "Eulogy for the 40th," he reminds us there are many in America who, "We don't care if Ronnie was a gentleman or looked good in/cowboy boots. Please, don't talk about the smile flashing/in his eyes.//Murdered nuns flashed in his eyes. Granada. Nicaragua, El Salvador. AIDS flashed in his eyes." Indeed, through out this book he brings up AIDS, rape, murder of gays and drag queens. He rises their memory in elegies and rememberances.
He speaks in first person in some of these and we feel the fear it is to live a life as outsider. In the one story in the book, named "Story," this fear is bracing.
This is a book to take back stolen territory, in the poem "Song of Removal" he addresses Columbus, AIDS, and all the removals that have taken place through time, he writes, "And this white college student says to me/I hate it when Hispanics won't speak English/This is our country//But it is not your country/Never will be your country/and the Xicano and the Xicana/shall speak whatever they choose/shall keep alive their ancestors/shall keep living/and I wonder why you don't speak Cheyenne" —punch in the belly writing on nearly every page.
My second favorite poem is "Evening With Andrew Jackson," who shows up at his door trailing "blood like satin ribbons." These days Andrew, "is writing a New Age book./He is making a dream catcher./He is mining minerals from the Black Hills./He is leaving trails across the continent."
And, another favorite, short poem is, "To Your Rude Question, What's your Pedigree? A Response." I would love it if this book were widely read, schools should teach it!
My favorite poem is his long one written after Reagan's death, "Eulogy for the 40th," he reminds us there are many in America who, "We don't care if Ronnie was a gentleman or looked good in/cowboy boots. Please, don't talk about the smile flashing/in his eyes.//Murdered nuns flashed in his eyes. Granada. Nicaragua, El Salvador. AIDS flashed in his eyes." Indeed, through out this book he brings up AIDS, rape, murder of gays and drag queens. He rises their memory in elegies and rememberances.
He speaks in first person in some of these and we feel the fear it is to live a life as outsider. In the one story in the book, named "Story," this fear is bracing.
This is a book to take back stolen territory, in the poem "Song of Removal" he addresses Columbus, AIDS, and all the removals that have taken place through time, he writes, "And this white college student says to me/I hate it when Hispanics won't speak English/This is our country//But it is not your country/Never will be your country/and the Xicano and the Xicana/shall speak whatever they choose/shall keep alive their ancestors/shall keep living/and I wonder why you don't speak Cheyenne" —punch in the belly writing on nearly every page.
My second favorite poem is "Evening With Andrew Jackson," who shows up at his door trailing "blood like satin ribbons." These days Andrew, "is writing a New Age book./He is making a dream catcher./He is mining minerals from the Black Hills./He is leaving trails across the continent."
And, another favorite, short poem is, "To Your Rude Question, What's your Pedigree? A Response." I would love it if this book were widely read, schools should teach it!
September 23, 2008
I really appreciated this book for the fierce history & survival stories. Think that many of these pieces would be amazing performed live!
June 3, 2018
Incredibly raw and powerful collection that maintained its lyrical quality while tackling issues of HIV/AIDS in the gay community, hate crimes, the refugee-making of Native Americans, violence towards/in indigenous communities, and the author’s own struggles as a two-spirited individual in a society that likes to check boxes. I loved this and would definitely recommend reading it; ultimately we’re all interconnected, share the same hearts and the same wounds - this author has a deep understanding of this.
April 11, 2021
5/5
I'm speechless and floating in the beauty of this poetry collection. All the poems were beautifully written and so powerful, I was almost in tears. I really loved how a majority of the poems were dedicated to deceased members of the community, it made it all the more moving.
I'm speechless and floating in the beauty of this poetry collection. All the poems were beautifully written and so powerful, I was almost in tears. I really loved how a majority of the poems were dedicated to deceased members of the community, it made it all the more moving.
February 15, 2010
Beautiful and Powerful Poetry
November 24, 2016
Qwo-Li Driskill has a way of describing tragedy with a beautiful usage of language. Each poem I felt deeply. Beautiful book.
June 1, 2022
I picked this up to consider for some writing lessons on witness, and I was not disappointed. This book witnesses to the strength and resilience and beauty of indigenous and queer communities and witnesses to the terrors of white supremacy, colonialism, queerphobia, AIDS, and racism. Each poem is a whole world. And as a writer, the poetic forms are an adventure. Every flip of the page gives not only content and heart to absorb and ponder on, but also poetic craft.
June 20, 2025
Ancestor / crow / owl shadow / haunted / sleep / serpents / swift / travel / wild strawberries / root ceremonies / push through the surface / blue diamond / lick / bones / pluck / own / glitters / gilded / rhythms / swell / fireflies / rage / dust / moths / cannot be hidden/ grandmother / sorrow / scream / wrap / surround / between / doorway / feed me the traditions / curve / loaves of bread / adorn
January 27, 2019
A magnificent poetry collection by a Two-Spirit Native American. The poems in this book are just consistently tight and haunting. 8.5/10
May 30, 2024
My favorite book of poetry. Map of Americas changed my life.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews