The Land We Dreamed

"Survant's poems give voice to both historical and imagined characters, filling some of the gaps that occur in history's elliptical record of major events by focusing on individual voices and representative monologues. . . . The composite of these various voices offers a fresh look at the region and a feel for what life must have been like in a state of nature."—Richard Taylor, author of Rare Bird: Sonnets on the Life of John James Audubon

This book of dramatic monologues is, as Joe Survant tells us in his introduction, a "net of imagination cast into history." The physical difficulties of life in eighteenth-century "kentuckee" are made vibrantly clear, but it is the emotional hardship, loss and its aftermath, that Survant excels in conveying. With fresh tropes and stunning images he delves into the "dark patina of sorrow." Kentucky is Joe Survant's native land and loss is his ground, a "knowledge [that] can be read in nature, however brutal the book." -Natasha Sajé, author of VIvarium

"The poems in "The Land We Dreamed " are visions of a place , Kentucky, through deep time, all those years of beauty and blood. They give us not just how it was, but how it felt. It's a true gift." - Kim Stanley Robinson, author of "Shaman"

"I read Joe Survant's "The Land We Dreamed" as a war story: hence, a story of loss and survival. The poet, known for his skillfully crafted dramatic lyrics, unfolds here the narratives of several spirited characters who, in a span of 150 years, brave wilderness, illness, violence, and bitter weather to make their way to the beautiful, bountiful land, "Kentucke." Most tragic in the collection are the deaths of children, historic and imagined, often collateral damage, whose cries haunt its pages. Survant does not discriminate; he weaves the deaths, not only of Americans of European descent, but those of Native American, whose indefensible losses include their native lands and ways of life. Who survives this history are our intrepid ancestors, white and brown; but none escape grief. Those of us who are native Kentuckians, or transplanted Kentuckians, cannot help but be moved by the stories Survant tells and the emotions he elicits in these understated, vivid, powerful, and moving poems." - Maureen Morehead, Spalding University's low-residency MFA Program in Creative Writing