Horses
Will be published approx. on 2. April 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
160 pages
978-1-83675-010-9 (ISBN)
Description
The landscape of the Navajo Nation is undergoing dramatic changes. In 2018, 191 wild horses were discovered dead in a stock pond near Gray Mountain. The horses were trapped thigh- and neck-deep in the mud, some piled on top of others. Horses is a twelve-part poem responding to the climate crisis faced by this region and beyond.
This is the story we tell when seasons change
but what we are told of time: time is an ulcer
a lie we tell through mouths not our own
because this mouth belongs to policy
because time is stolen from us.
Horses is about the end of the world, but it might also be about emergence, caught somewhere at the horizon, like the morning, all blue and crisp.
This is the story we tell when seasons change
but what we are told of time: time is an ulcer
a lie we tell through mouths not our own
because this mouth belongs to policy
because time is stolen from us.
Horses is about the end of the world, but it might also be about emergence, caught somewhere at the horizon, like the morning, all blue and crisp.
Reviews / Votes
'Skeets challenges toxic masculinity with a queer coming-of-age narrative that's knowingly reminiscent of D.A. Powell's "Useless Landscape, or a Guide for Boys" - but distinctly oriented within Navajo culture and the landscape of Gallup.' '...the debut of a brilliant and transcendent poet, whose work conveys a gorgeous sense of self and of storytelling ability - qualities of the best literature in any tradition.' 'Everything, for Skeets, becomes an image...At his best, he relies less on the shape of the page than on the sounds of words, the evocations, noun by noun, of these difficult spaces, where some of us feel at home even in distress, where many of us will never be.' 'Skeets is a new, essential voice in poetry, in literature.' -- Tommy OrangeMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 197 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 11 mm
Weight
166 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-83675-010-9 (9781836750109)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Jake Skeets is the author of Eyes Bottle Dark With a Mouthful of Flowers, and winner of the National Poetry Series, Kate Tufts Discovery Award, American Book Award and Whiting Award. His writing has appeared in Poetry Foundation, The New York Times Magazine and The Paris Review.
Skeets is the recipient of an NEA Grant and a Mellon Projecting All Voices Fellowship. He is Dine, from the Navajo Nation, and is currently serving as the 3rd Navajo Nation Poet Laureate, 2025-2027.
Skeets is the recipient of an NEA Grant and a Mellon Projecting All Voices Fellowship. He is Dine, from the Navajo Nation, and is currently serving as the 3rd Navajo Nation Poet Laureate, 2025-2027.