I remember the day Isaac came into my classroom, out of breath with excitement. 'I can't do tomorrow's homework — I'm going to Mount Moriah!' He flashed his father's illegible note. There were many things that made him a special kid His neck was shaped like a pill. His head looked like an amulet. His skin was translucent.
II.
'If the story of Isaac teaches us anything it's that every knife is a compliment and the greatest sacrifice of all is to throw it away.' My analyst reads from his new book, Isaac at the release party. 'To disregard evidence of our worth in favor of a faith that it does not depend on being chosen — for death as for recognition — is to become more and less than a hero — is to become free.'
I wonder how being named Isaac led him to become a self-described healer and whether the positive coverage will help or hurt him.
III.
I once read a Midrash that Abraham offered Isaac the knife and started to bind himself on the altar. But the thought of killing his father was too much. So Isaac removed the binding and placed himself in his stead. This explains why there was no resistance. Why, when Isaac got up, there were no bruises. And why the ram seemed to die, of its own will before the knife could fall.
"As I was originally writing this poem it was one chunk of text, but the enjambment was something I considered once I typed it up. I typically think about the function of strong verbs and nouns at the end of a line, but I wondered about breaking it up mid-line. I wanted to see if I could double that durability of language."
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"The English translation is a reminder of linguistic colonization. English now surrounds both Irish and Ojibwe, but in my translation is not the primary vehicle for interpretation. Providing an English version of the poem ensures it can be read by Ojibwe speakers who may not know Irish and Irish speakers who may not know Ojibwe. It also reflects that this is a poem primarily concerned with the connection between Irish and Ojibwe which is a decolonial act of reclamation."
