Description
This NEW edition of the PROPOSED ADDITIONS features a perfect bound collection of acclaimed poet Donovan Kūhiō Colleps' documentary poetry collection.
Donovan Kūhiō Colleps constructs PROPOSED ADDITIONS out of many parts: a house blueprint; his grandfather's cancer journal; the instructions to a pulmonary respirator; the story of a daddy sea horse; and an investigation of O'ahu's leeward side, its histories and its mo'olelo. In this hybrid work—documentary poem, prose reflection, elegy—Colleps recovers his grandfather's memory by way of the filing cabinet he left behind. As the poet carries the metal cabinet strapped to his back across the 'Ewa plain, he recovers more than this intimate past. He also recovers significant cultural and linguistic histories of place in a part of Hawai'i now being over-developed.
"As a work of documentary poetry at its finest, Donovan Kūhiō Colleps’ Proposed Additions remembers, records, and honors his grandfather, drawing from sources diverse in language, form, and purpose—mele, mo’olelo, a ventilator manual, a construction budget, the frail corpse of a seahorse. Following his grandfather as family chronicler, Colleps casts an intricate ʻupena of poetic memory, showing us the knots and puka—all that is aching, broken, absent, and yet still strong, beautiful, enduring.This book is a precious offering of ʻŌiwi poetry, masterful in language, craft, musicality, and what matters most—aloha. Read these poems slowly, savor them with raw gratitude for every memory, every moment you have with the people and ʻāina you love deeply." —Brandy Nālani McDougall, Hawaiʻi Poet Laureate 2023-2025 and author of ‘Āina Hānau, Birth Land
"In Proposed Additions Donovan Colleps offers us an alchemical rendering of the traditional lament in the Hawaiian song style — mele kanikau —here, a grandson’s farewell to his grandfather. In several movements, the poem amplifies the classical kanikau’s central focus on relationship between speaker and the deceased beloved one, by plaiting a basket of farewell gifts from strands of memory and genealogy, colonial detritus, socio-economic struggle, and finally transcendence. In its transformational journey through the apocalyptic miasma of colonial violence, Proposed Additions embodies the power of love, resilience, and continuity." —Caroline Sinavaiana Gabbard, PhD, author of Alchemies of Distance (Tinfish)
"Donovan Kūhiō Colleps adroitly crafts a world of family and place interweaving English, Hawaiian language, and Hawaiʻi Creole English (aka “Pidgin”). With deftly rendered poetry and prose along with exquisite typographical arrangements, Colleps poignantly memorializes his forebears and homelands juxtaposing fragile memories with too-often forgotten histories. Proposed Additions summons a myriad of voices: breath from his ancestors, sustenance from the sea, apparitions from the past, significance of place, along with sagacious perceptions within the shifting currents of his and his family’s storied lives." —Richard Hamasaki, independent filmmaker/producer and author of From the Spider Bone Diaries, Poems and Songs (University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2000)
"Proposed Additions is one of my touchstone books that I return to again and again to be amazed by how Donovan Kūhiō Colleps renders the most heart-baring moments-- watching someone you love struggle for their last breath, discovering a grandparent’s careful tally sheet, carrying a memory to the ocean—with beauty and honesty. Colleps is writing poetry, yes, but he is also constructing a tender biography of family, ‘aina, and Hawai‘i." —Kristiana Kahakauwila, author of This Is Paradise: Stories
"Donovan Kūhiō Colleps compellingly juxtaposes threads of history and `ohana, object and emotion, beauty and the everyday, weaving a pathway to a place of deep and unforgettable understanding." —Anne Kennedy, author of The Sea Walks into a Wall
“In English and Hawaiian, the words of Donovan Kūhiō Colleps have a soft touch, and their very lightness firmly connects bodies, generations, and places with the materialities of memory, listings, care, and song.” —Cristina Bacchilega, author of Inviting Interruptions: Wonder Tales in the 21st Century
Poetry. Literary Nonfiction. Hybrid.
Author Bio
Donovan Kūhiō Colleps is a poet and editor from Puʻuloa, Oʻahu. His recent work has appeared in When The Light Of The World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through (W.W. Norton), The Slowdown (American Public Media), Poetry, (Poetry Foundation), Indigenous Pacific Islander Eco-Literatures (University of Hawaiʻi Press), and Poem-a-Day (poets.org). He lives in Mānoa with his ipo, Annie Thomas, and their four indoor-only cats, Hāʻulelau, Hele, Hoʻi, and Hilo.
Author City: 'EWA, HI USA