Blood Wolf Moon

"I have a name / 𐓻𐓘𐓻𐓟 𐓘𐓜𐓣́͘𐓟." These are the final lines of “Heritage,” a brilliant series of crowns that begins Elise Paschen's remarkable Blood Wolf Moon. In poems both lyrical and conversational, both traditional and experimental, Paschen explores what it means to name one’s personal and tribal past while looking for the language to aptly articulate our present condition. A magical map of memory and vision, Blood Wolf Moon connects the poet to Oklahoma, Chicago, France, her children, her ancestors, the Osage language, the Wahzhazhe, and even Killers of the Flower Moon. Paschen’s poems chart the many paths to the poet’s identity, but they also illuminate our own journeys. Blood Wolf Moon is smart and sad and beautiful and haunting. I love this book. It is a revelation.”
-Dean Rader, author of Self-Portrait as Wikipedia Entry

“Elise Paschen’s powerful new book of poetry, Blood Wolf Moon, is the culmination of investigating contradictory layers of familial and cultural heritage. The epigraph comes from an Osage song, “To the door of the House of Mystery I have come,” such an appropriate invitation to this collection. The heritage of parentage is most potent in this living, however, in that configuration is the ongoing mystery the mother root provokes in daughters, especially when your mother belongs to the world, not just the domestic sphere. Paschen is always formally aware. In this endeavor, the formal weave embraces give, and she finds a taut freedom. She flies. This is her best book.”
—Joy Harjo, former US Poet Laureate

"The poems that comprise 'Blood Wolf Moon' create a narrative of exploration in which Paschen uses her personal history to reach into the deep crevices of Osage history. Her voice, while filled with love for her heritage, the natural world and poetry itself, rises and falls with anger, sadness and outrage. Her poetic style is as smart as it is lovely."
—Donald G. Evans, writer for New City Lit

"Paschen’s adept distillations of deep traumas, determined survival, and complex reclamation are astute, moving, and breathtaking."
— Donna Seaman, writer for Booklist

Paschen invites us, through her example, to take the courageous act of finding our name as Americans and write ourselves into being...Blood Wolf Moon stands as a testament that, as a country, we will only be complete and resilient enough to confront the challenges of our futures if we examine our past, atone for it, and find our true name." 

- Rey M. Rodriguez, writer for Chapter House Journal