What Is Broken Binds Us

<p><em>What is Broken Binds Us</em> shares stories of loss absence acceptance and hope. Returning to the page after a long absence poet Lorne Daniel provides a unique perspective on crisis that balances raw emotion with vulnerability thoughtfulness and care. </p> <p>In seven sections Daniel braids the stories of empire personal traumas addiction and family estrangement shifting emergencies and the wisdom of elders and the natural world. <em>Lessons in Emergency Preparedness</em> traces accident injury and recovery facing the trauma of a sudden loss of physical competence through the metaphorical and literal breaks of a shattered body and the slow movement towards mending. <em>When the Tributaries Ran Rich</em> unravels empire and a five-century narrative of hard-working immigrants with the discovery of enslavement in family records forcing a deep reconsideration of the truth of the past. <em>Episodic Tremor & Slip</em> speaks of the tectonic shifts in family life that occur when facing substance abuse addiction and mental health struggles of the pain of estrangement and the love that continues. <em>In the Family Name</em> is a reflection on time on people and on the natural world that revisits and turns over all that came before exploring it from new angles. </p> <p>Lorne Daniel writes with calm conversational assurance. These poems are accessible and evocative speaking from their specificity to the many people who have faced injury estrangement struggle and pain and must carry it--and carry on.</p>