Dream On

Laurence Steven is Chairman of the English Department at Laurentian
University and author of Dissociation and Wholeness in Patrick White’s
Fiction.

Chrystos is a part-Menominee Native lesbian. Dream On comprises her most
recent concrete and prose poems (including the Spanish “Nadie Ha
Andado Antes”), and also features her drawings.

Chrystos’s poems (the better ones are near the beginning of the book)
touch on racism, genocide towards Indians, North American Native
culture, homophobia, sexual abuse, poverty, animal rights, war, and
love. They are autobiographical—full of gloom, anger, passion, and
eros. Reading her poetry is cathartic and therapeutic because one can
feel the emotions her poems radiate. “Winter Count,” a poem that
truly documents the plight of the North American Indian, and “Soft,”
a sensuous poem about the love between two women, are the best pieces in
the book.

Dream On is a powerful collection that leaves readers wanting more.