Aurum: Poems (Sun Tracks)

by Santee Frazier

Unflinching and magnetic, the language and structure of Aurum never strays from its dedication to revealing the prominent reality of Native people being marginalized and discarded in the wake of industrial progress. While uncovering different forms of oppression that estrange Native Americans from their own land, these poems explore the raw and disturbing aspects of living in the wastelands of contemporary America.

Aurum does not attempt to provide answers or solutions. Instead, it splits the belly of North America and lays it bare into powerful words and unconventional structures. Brutally honest and incredibly fine tuned, this collection digs up “the grit where teeth once rooted” to show the objectification of Native peoples and cultures for the grotesque erasure it really is.

With images that taunt, disturb, and fascinate, Aurum captures the vibrantly original language in Santee Frazier’s first collection, Dark Thirty, while taking on a completely new voice and rhythm. Each poem is vivid and memorable, beckoning to be read again and again as the words lend an enhanced experience each time. Frazier has crafted a wrought-iron collection of poetry that never shies away from a truth that America often attempts to ignore.

Genres: Poetry

72 pages, Paperback

First published September 17, 2019

About the author

Santee Frazier is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. He holds a BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts and an MFA from Syracuse University. He is the recipient of various awards including: The Truman Capote Scholarship, Syracuse University Fellowship and a Lannan Foundation Residency Fellowship. His poems have appeared in American Poet, Narrative Magazine, Ontario Review, and other literary journals. His first collection of poems Dark Thirty was released by the University of Arizona Press in the spring of 2009.

Reviews

[Rachel Nicole Wagner Martinez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up at a locally owned bookstore in Santa Fe, New Mexico and I really enjoyed it. I think I was a little confused about the concept and narrative, however, there were some interesting themes that I did enjoy.

~xo,
Rach

[Camille Dungy]

The word “Aurum” means “Gold.” Frazier’s book is less about the fortunes some reap from its sale, and less about the luster and shine of the metal, than it is about what is left behind after its mining. Consider the second to last section of a long poem called “Half-Life,” which describes an image titled “49ers Chain Indians to Trough.” The energy in Aurum is like a woodstove Frazier describes elsewhere in “Half-Life”: “Its bulbous hull/ a womb/ of popping embers.” As these poems insist, “This is not fate.” The “dislodged earth” and hunger here, the violence and the anger, the “gritty air” and “fungal,” “mangled” disarray, the “dust and exhaust” and dead animals are all by design. What we’re left with after picking up Aurum are the spoils of a culture of rapacious, careless “thirst.”

Review published originally with Orion Magazine: https://orionmagazine.org/2021/11/nat...

[Rebecca Hays · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnetic. Frazier gave a powerful reading too, & was so generous with insights and process.

[Joseph Delgado · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant

[Queer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The language clangs against itself like cans in a bag in the back of a rusted out car. The familiar corn and chickens wander against a back drop both metallic gold and greasy. Bacon greasy.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the series of Mangled poems. Living in Texas I could almost smell the imagery.

[Noah Doser · Rating 4 out of 5]

didn't think he could out-do himself, but here we are

[ryan carney · Rating 3 out of 5]

6.5/10