I Place You Into the Fire: Poems

The incisive and vital first poetry collection from Mi'kmaw spoken-word poet and former poet laureate of Kjipuktuk (Halifax), Nova Scotia.

We remember tomorrow and a thousand years ago.

From eel weirs to the buffalo.

We remember petroglyphs and Instagram photos.

See, we remember our history,

Without statues, money, or pictures of the Queen.

In Mi'kmaw, three similarly shaped words have drastically different meanings: kesalul means I love you; kesa'lul means I hurt you; and ke'sa'lul means I put you into the fire. In spoken-word artist and critically acclaimed author (I'm Finding My Talk) Rebecca Thomas's first poetry collection, readers will feel Thomas's deep love, pain, and frustration as she holds us all to task, along the way mourning the loss of her childhood magic, exploring the realities of growing up off reserve, and offering up a new Creation Story for Canada.

Diverse and probing, I place you into the fire is at once a meditation on navigating life and love as a second-generation Residential School survivor, a lesson in unlearning, and a rallying cry for Indigenous justice, empathy, and equality. A searing collection that embodies the vitality and ferocity of spoken-word poetry.