I found Layli Long Soldier’s Whereas to a be a fascinating and unusual compilation of poems. I found it difficult to understand the cohesive narrative in Part I, but perhaps that was the point of that section. It seemed to be a collection of descriptions, each a little bit more jarring than the last. I really appreciated how she used space and the format of the poem to convey the feeling of the poem. In mixing up how the poems were displayed, she also used a number of different poetry writing styles. Through using mixed methods, she was able to achieve a narrative that constantly keeps you on your toes and having to reassess what each new poem means in the larger picture.

           Part II was the most powerful section of the text as Layli Long Soldier reclaimed Barack Obama’s Congressional Resolution of Apology to the Native Americans. Her choice of using whereas statements to tie the first narrative together was extremely interesting because whereas statements are intended to set up the problem before presenting the legislation. She is using some of her own life experiences and the trials of an indigenous person to set up how the US government has wronged her people. I found it really moving when she took the words from the resolution and redacted the negative ones, showing that choice placement of a few buzzwords was really what the resolution was about. In the resolutions section, she chose a few key words to highlight such as “boundaries” and “this land,” showing reclamation of the words that should be her own, but have been turned against her.