The Sky Was Once a Dark Blanket

Drake’s excellent debut, winner of the 2023 National Poetry Series Award, enlivens and expands the traditions of Navajo poetry with arresting imagery, pop culture references, and queer touchstones. Drake delivers an intergenerational exploration of identity and heritage, with familial memories of a “childhood home/ that smelled of dryer sheets” and a reservation radio station that played Loretta Lynn and Johnny Cash alongside “drumbeats and throaty covers/ of well-loved tunes put on/ by some local boys’ gas station// banjo and hot-rocket guitar.” There are frequent allusions to Navajo beliefs about the cosmos: “Coyote threw/ up a basket of stars to shatter the black/ into brilliance... Do the ghosts, too, feel comforted/ in the haze as you sing me/ the birth of the Milky Way?” In “for mildred bailey, in three parts,” Drake celebrates the incredible talents of the eponymous Native jazz singer, “her wide voice rivering the smoke/ Her lips heartberry-/ red in the lights.” Drake soars with a simultaneously frenetic and restrained energy, demonstrating a polished skill that does nothing to dull her electric delivery. It’s a noteworthy achievement. (Sept.)