HARROWINGS

by Cecily Nicholson

Set mainly in the rural, HARROWINGS connects with Black intellectual and art history in relation to agriculture. The poems include pulses of memoir from the poet's childhood growing up on a farm, as well as from more recent pandemic experiences volunteering for a local agricultural enterprise led by people who were formerly incarcerated. Considering movements organizing for food security and related, resurgent practices, HARROWINGS also contends with "the farm" as a tract of colonial advance. Tropes of tradition and supremacy are confronted in this study of biome, plants, and soil. Despite episodic and chronic illness, and by way of practical tasks such as sowing, pruning, and watering, the poetry advances with love towards abolitionist futures.

Genres: Poetry

110 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 7, 2022

Reviews

[Jade Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cecily Nicholson's books are always worth reading, and this is no exception.

[Penn Kemp · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many harrowing and fertile ways of growing a poet: “a surface-deep practice of harrowing matters”.

Cecily Nicholson quotes Robert Kroetsch from Seed Catalogue: “But how do you grow a poet?”

[atito · Rating 4 out of 5]

i have missed reading poetry and hearing cecily nicholson read was an absolute treat this semester