Born Sacred

Poems for Palestine

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Pub Date Apr 03 2025 | Archive Date Jul 11 2025

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Description

In October 2023, upon witnessing the escalation of Palestinian genocide, Ktunaxa poet Smokii Sumac began writing poems reflecting on the stories of Palestinians in Gaza who were risking their lives to share news of the genocide of Palestinian culture, literature, and life. These 100 poems offer a witnessing of the escalation of colonial violence, both current and historical, across oceans, lands, cultures, and people, and the reckoning one has in the face of a genocide.

Vulnerable, eloquent, compassionate, and enduring, Born Sacred is an in-time reflection honouring the shared histories of Indigenous Peoples of North America and of the people in Palestine. Sumac offers this collection as a small piece of life dedicated to Palestinians and resounds the collective call for solidarity in our shared liberation.

In October 2023, upon witnessing the escalation of Palestinian genocide, Ktunaxa poet Smokii Sumac began writing poems reflecting on the stories of Palestinians in Gaza who were risking their lives...


Advance Praise

“Born Sacred: Poems for Palestine is a profound work of grace and solidarity, rooted in a hard-earned understanding of colonialism’s insatiable appetite."

-- Omar El Akkad, author of What Strange Paradise

“The succinct starkness of Smokii Sumac’s offerings are an X-Ray to the grief and absurdity of our times. This dangerous dichotomy of trying to live one’s everyday life while holding the tragedy of everyday loss is profoundly captured in each stanza.”

-- Catherine Hernandez, author and screenwriter of Scarborough

“Creating room for collective grief, Smokii Sumac shows us the responsibility and power of the poet to face the blank page in the here and now and the necessity for words to remain as a testimony to history.”

-- Rayya Liebich, author of Min Hayati

“In both form and content, the poems shatter dominating linear and compartmentalizing interpretations of the world with constellating stanzas, voices, and experiences that reveal the intertwined histories and presents of colonial harm and Indigenous survivance."

-- Maral Aguilera-Moradipour, assistant professor, Asian refugee literatures and cultures, SFU


“Born Sacred: Poems for Palestine is a profound work of grace and solidarity, rooted in a hard-earned understanding of colonialism’s insatiable appetite."

-- Omar El Akkad, author of What Strange...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781773637259
PRICE $24.00 (USD)
PAGES 160

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Featured Reviews

This is a powerful and moving collection exploring the shared suffering between a First Nations tribe in Canada and the conflict in Palestine. The poet writes with passion and energy, using their voice to highlight the tragedies both peoples have experienced.

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This collection is so important. I feel every word of it and I feel so helpless. Can I do more? Can I help these poor people that live in a nightmare? The initiative of this collection is heart warming. But I also hope that I don't have to read a hundred more poems for the people av Palestine.

Thanks to Netgalley, the Publisher and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

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I thought the preface was a brilliant break down of how deeply rooted the hunger for land can be and how closely related the continued assault on Palestine is much like the perpetual taking of inches of indigenous communities' lands. Throughout the poems, there are continual similarities shared between the history of both issues, and it's like being in the middle of watching history repeat itself-- even with how the pages are set up often, there's this past and future, and present marked by the movement between the two. You can feel the sadness that feels universal of just watching this happen in clips on the news.

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I got this as an arc on Netgalley and it will come out in April. This poetry book was stunning. It's a beautiful Indigenous, queer and disabled introspective and commentary on what is happening in Palestine, and a very personal and emotional read.

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The contrast within the poems opens my heart. This is the type of poetry collection I would shove down in the postal box of all my friends, no note, no explanation, just the words speaking for themselves.

It’s poetry that needs to be read, absorbed, reflected upon. The kind that settles into your bones and changes shape depending on the light. I'm obsessed and will try to acquire a physical copy ASAP - some words are meant to be held and kept permanently.

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Solid poetry collection done by an Indigenous Canadian poet as they witness the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

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