Letters in a Bruised Cosmos

by Liz Howard

The latest from the author of the Griffin Poetry Prize Award-winning collection Infinite Citizen of the Shaking Tent.

I have to believe my account will outpace its ending.


The danger and necessity of living with each other is at the core of Liz Howard's daring and intimate second collection. Letters in a Bruised Cosmos asks who do we become after the worst has happened? Invoking the knowledge histories of Western and Indigenous astrophysical science, Howard takes us on a breakneck river course of radiant and perilous survival in which we are invited to "reforge [ourselves] inside tomorrow's humidex". Everyday observation, family history, and personal tragedy are sublimated here in a propulsive verse that is relentlessly its own. Part autobiography, part philosophical puzzlement, part love song, Letters in a Bruised Cosmos is a book that once read will not soon be forgotten.

Genres: Poetry, Indigenous, Canada, Nonfiction, Adult, Race

80 pages, Paperback

First published June 8, 2021

About the author

LIZ HOWARD’s debut collection Infinite Citizen of the Shaking Tent won the 2016 Griffin Poetry Prize, was shortlisted for the 2015 Governor General’s Award for poetry, and was named a Globe and Mail top 100 book. A National Magazine Award finalist, her recent work has appeared in Canadian Literature, Literary Review of Canada, Room Magazine and Best Canadian Poetry 2021. Her second collection, Letters in a Bruised Cosmos, was published by McClelland & Stewart in June 2021. Howard received an Honours Bachelor of Science with High Distinction from the University of Toronto, and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. She served as the 2018-2019 Distinguished Canadian Writer in Residence at the University of Calgary and has completed creative writing and Indigenous arts residencies at UBC Kelowna, Douglas College, Sheridan College, and The Capilano Review. She is an Adjunct Professor and instructor in the Department English at the University of Toronto and a Poetry Editor for Buckrider Books, an imprint of Wolsak & Wynn. She is of mixed settler and Anishinaabe heritage. Born and raised on Treaty 9 territory in northern Ontario, she currently lives in Toronto.

Reviews

[Billy-Ray Belcourt · Rating 5 out of 5]

My blurb: "In Letters in a Bruised Cosmos, Liz Howard makes sentences with the elegance and mystery of a sculptor. Howard’s aesthetic mode is a beautiful synthesis of feminist, anti-colonial, and post-structural traditions of critique and re-imagination that is singularly hers. I read each poem with the faith that I would land somewhere I couldn’t have known existed until I opened this book. That’s the mark of poetic genius. I loved this book with my whole body."

TLDR: I loved this book with my whole body.

[Rebecca Meyrink · Rating 5 out of 5]

I guess I’m in my crying while reading poetry era.

[Onyx · Rating 5 out of 5]

D-E-A-D-L-Y ✨

[Sarah Paps · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very enjoyable read, I liked most the overall concept of the book. The execution is done with precision and even though Howard’s style of poetry may be slightly too abstract for me personally, there is something about it that is still evocative and leaves me with a sense of indescribable feeling. That’s when you know a poet is masterful.

[b (incognito) · Rating 5 out of 5]

read in one sitting, incredibly emotive and personal collective of verse. miigwech liz 🧡

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 1/2 stars

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very beautiful collection of poetry! I liked the style and the depth of each piece. Many of the pieces made you think broader and some a bit more close to home. I particularly enjoyed the depth of emotion in ‘Letter from Halifax’ that talks about a relationship between father and daughter. Wonderful.

[Helena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Letters in a Bruised Cosmos is another stunning poetry collection from Liz Howard. Just like with her debut collection Infinite Citizen of The Shaking Tent, I felt serene as I read Howard’s poems even though she discusses topics like trauma, loneliness, grief, patriarchy, and survival. There’s just something about her writing style that brings tranquility and feels dreamlike while she considers existence and expands our imaginations. Maybe that something is truth — these poems are personal and honest and those are qualities I love to see in poetry.

This collection is informed by Anishnaabe cosmology and Howard’s neuroscience background, and I love how she connects them to her personal experiences and feelings. I admire Howard’s perspective and creativity, and look forward to whatever she writes next!

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

I found this collection a bit uneven, but when it hits... it really hits. Some of the lines are just devastating. Grief and generational trauma are major themes, so proceed with caution. "Father's Day" is particularly affecting--the closing lines are brutally sad.

A few lines from "This Nocturne Went Summer":

Capital milks
its stress cortisol
to grow a horror in the body.

It finds us all.

Howard's indigenous heritage is also a focus of the collection, including indigenous astrology, which was a new subject for me.

[Storm Poetry · Rating 5 out of 5]

LETTERS IN A BRUISED COSMOS

“suffer the bones
the night
and starlight . . .”


Byline: Subterranean Blue Poetry

Title of Book: Letters in a Bruised Cosmos

Author: Liz Howard

Publisher: McClelland & Stewart

Date of Publication: 2021

Pages: 66


“ . . . “refiler la comète”, “to retrace the path of the comet” –
that is, to keep walking all night.”
- from The Other Paris by Luc Sante


An exciting New Age polyphonic poetic kraftwerk that expertly presents the politic of the Indigenous woman poet within the post-modern diaspora, a celebration in poetics, Letters in a Bruised Cosmos by Liz Howard. Liz Howard is widely published and won the Griffin Poetry Prize (2016) for her debut collection, Infinite Citizen of the Shaking Tent. She has studied science and creative writing, earning degrees at the University of Toronto and the University of Guelph. Her heritage is of mixed race Anishinaabe.

Through the dark presentation of place, this poet speaks in lightning. Heavy as if with depression, someone on a difficult journey, a dislocated family, lost lovers, travels through life in the streets. New technology images mix with Anishinaabe heritage images, nature, an idea of broken and whole that lingers on the tongue like a precious offering. An idea of the Indigenous women’s role and gender politics, perhaps the suffering of a broken bed. Themes include the death of her father, participating in a brain experiment, saying confession at a church, being in bed with a lover, a day in the life, nature haunts in an innovation of technical execution and alacrity. A truthtelling that occasionally breaks into the surrealist, sharp with observation.

“A rape in every
generation of my line within the time of photography. A heritable
loom of methylated DNA. How to speak this quiet violence that has
separated me from history? Have I made myself accessible
enough?”

Within the work of poetry is the reference to “True North”, almost deified, an incarnated exit, perhaps a reference to northern Ontario where she was raised and also like cultural folklore, the mythic “go north” everything will be better there happenstance that on a bad day titillates on the edges of reality.

A progression from the post-modern Beat influenced poetry of Leonard Cohen, this poetry shines. Also notable in Letters in a Bruised Cosmos are the innovations in poetic form. The first poem has the words,

“THE
HOLE
IN THE
SKY”

inserted into the centre of the lines of the block poem, so that the capitalized words can be read different ways, just the capitalized words, or the capitalized word within that line of the poem, and then spinning into reading the capitalized words in part, in unison. A creative dance with darkness, with loss. One of the poems, “Superposition” dances in a wave. There are poems in columns, that can be read down and across, in “Life Cycle of the Animal Called She” there are concept words pulled to the lefthand side of the body of the work,

“Wife
Mother
Mistress”

It is a genius of new poetic form.

The entire write ends with an exquisite love poem, drawn through darkness, a lament in beautiful execution. Truly an original offering in brilliant, shining light through darkness, a new day, Letters in a Bruised Cosmos by Liz Howard.

[ChiChi · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I could read and understand - it was glorious. Otherwise I was simply lost. Attempted to watch a you tube video with the author, unfortunately that didn't increase my comprehension or appreciation.
Really enjoyed the poems about her father, 'Letter From Halifax' and 'Father's Day', also enjoyed 'Superposition', and loved page 52 to the end...oh gosh, all of that room on the page - it was a delight, it slowed me down, it allowed me to breath and imagine and feel, it was as if a very few words took up all the space in the universe.

[And the following is just personal stuff!
Sometimes, and by sometimes I mean all the time, my lack of understanding, lack of comprehension, my 'not getting' a poem, leaves me apprehensive, leaves me feeling I'm on the sidelines - benched - likely to never play with words again - and then, somewhere in the midst of a collection, something clicks, and I get it! - and I feel safe and included and allowed to work with words once again! Yeh!]

[Maxwell O'Toole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Content: 5/5
Writing: 4.5/5
Enjoyment: 4.5/5
Overall: 4.5/5

Just short of bumping it to a perfect 5 in stars as I did for Infinite Citizen of the Shaking Tent since Howard's voice feels slightly less distinct and varied in this (but still incredible)!

This may have something to do with the length, as this collection is much shorter (due to centering on a specific theme, the hole in the sky, which was extremely interesting) and I'd already analysed a few of the poems in there during my reading of ICST.

Regardless, Howard's ability to discuss the complex in a way that's abstract but still able to be understood on an emotional level is incredible. Her experimentation with text is also HUGELY inspirational to me as it is done masterfully (and is perfect as a means of representing the images Howard paints, such as the sky hole).

Highly recommend if you're interested in poetry, astronomy, astrology, Indigenous folklore, psychology, neuroscience, or any combination of these!

[Cameron Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll be honest, there were a few times while reading these poems that I started to wonder how much of this collection was just hot air. But then a line or image would hit like a tonne of bricks. For instance:

I dream of places I have lived before
in which I am an unremarkable agent.
Every screen is a stun gun, a spent stud.
I scroll as from the non-place of a lobotomy.
At night I place a pressed note of melatonin
under my soul and pray for a repeat.

The day was disinterested in me.

What this collection does well is oscillate between the vastly abstract and the minutely concrete. The effect can be disorienting and alienating at times but if you go with the flow it can be quite rewarding. "Letter From Halifax," "Father's Day," and "Brain Mapping" were my favourite individual poems.

[Juliane · Rating 5 out of 5]

For school. Even had the author come into our class to discuss it. I have never connected with a book of poetry the way I connected with Howard's work. Throughout her book, there is this inexplicable feeling that we are all connected to the stars and that we are just longing to go back home to them. This resonated with me more than any other book of poetry ever has. I will not write an essay here because trust me I already have written multiple and my english lit days are well behind me but I do recommend for anyone who is interested in poetry even in the slightest!!

[Lemur · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. A short but great collection of poems. Could easily be a 4 if I were to reread it, I feel it's the type of thing that one doesn't get all of on the first time through. There is a complexity here that was a real surprise from such a short collection, but size really isn't relevant to impact when it comes to literature. Some real beautiful metaphors and interesting images. Would recommend to folks who are at least somewhat confident poetry readers.

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A breathtaking braiding together of astronomy, neuroscience, Anishnaabe mythology, and well, poetry. Some of these poems are quite accessible, and some I’m going to have to sit with for a while. I wasn’t surprised to see Howard cite Dionne Brand as a mentor, because this collection had real Brand energy.

[DW · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute must for understanding Indigenous perspectives on trauma and experience. It is transformative and visceral. I haven't read poetry this powerful and brilliantly written in years. I purchased my own copy half way through reading a copy from the library.

[Tutankhamun18 · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favourites: Probability Cloud, Superposition, Father’s Day, Superposition and True Value. This collection is astrophysical science through the westerm and indigenous lens used to evoke identity, family, hope, hopelessness, fear, death, bodily autonomy and intimacy.

[Bobbi Salkeld]

My favourite poem in Letters is “Father’s Day.” It’s beautifully chilling.

[Ted Landrum · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is rare book of poetry is both excellent and important. A must read for anyone who wants to learn the art and purpose of poetry. Congratulations Liz Howard!

[Syd Lazarus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful.

[Rain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like any collection of poetry, a single read is not enough. I will have to come back to this one, but for now I can say Liz Howard's mastery of language is exceptional this collection was striking.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

[Jeff Bailey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not impressed by popular poetry. It wasn't horrible, so if you like popular poetry, you may love it!

I'm doomed to write what I want and come off as a poetry snob.

[Julia]

I enjoyed the ambience of this collection but the central ideas didn’t come across clearly, so it was a bit hard to follow.

[Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

*
"Brief habits,
Minor passions,
Ill-considered missives
Into the drain of days.
Always it is like this:

Thrumming to my own dark frequency
Like a broken lark under
A maple tree."

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5! I liked the writing and the structure of the poems was really artistic at times. I just wasn’t too sure what was going on a lot of the time, but that’s a me problem!

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

beautiful and intriguing. Liz Howard is an excellent poet.
"History is a sewing motion / along a thin membrane."

[Heather]

Every so often I read something and simply think, "I'm not intelligent enough for this, actually."

That was this collection for me.

[Lana · Rating 5 out of 5]

“History is a sewing motion
along a thin membrane.

Pía mater.
Dura mater.
Tender mother.
Hard mother.

Can I still learn
to feel protected
by what encloses me?”

From “Brain Mapping”