“I want you to know that history is not what you’ve been told.
You have been asked to pledge allegiance to certain facts…”
…
“And most of all history, because when someone is telling you
How you got here, and why, and sometimes when,
Something is at stake, for you hearing, for them telling.”
More than being a collection of poems, Hoofprints by Jessie Haas is a journey through human history told in short evocative sketches of each era.
The poems are of different lengths and structures, moods, style and viewpoint–some are more emotional, others appeal to the senses, or the mind. Each poem ends with the exact dated period it was inspired by, so the reader can relate to the history of each era.
Several lines in the book which seem simply to echo the human condition have been called political, which seems an unhappy response. In my view the book treads honest paths which incidentally travel forgotten roads of human history.
Learning more, we find out history can be different than what we believe.
