DREAM ON Chrystos Vancouver, Press Gang Publishers, 1991. 151pp, paper, $10.95 ISBN 0-88974-029-1. CIP Grades 10 and up/Ages 15 and up Reviewed by donalee Moulton. Volume 19 Number 5 1991 October Reading Chrystos' poetry is like taking a cold shower after a long, lazy day on a hot sand beach. Anticipation struggles with reluctance. Cold showers are both eye-opening and refreshing — you feel better after you've had one — but they can still shock, startle and even hurt. So can Chrystos' words. Indeed, at times, Chrystos' pain is palpable. She deals directly and forth-rightly with her native heritage and the while ways that would see that heritage negated, just as she deals honestly and candidly with being a victim of incest and the bigotry she suffers because she is lesbian. ... I've been an expert at sex since he taught me how Whatever it is that women who weren't abused give I don't have it I was torched out long ago I respond as a knee jerks to rubber hammer blows I even enjoy myself but it doesn't mean I'm giving you me I don't have a self I can give But Chrystos does not only put her pain into words. She offers readers visions that are both beautiful and compelling. She offers the gift of laughter: What should I do about those ones who try to crawl down my throat bulging eyes are going to Under­stand me or Else.... Dear Puzzled, Best thing to do is tell them you've heard there's a great Indian wise woman named Whale Rabbit over anyplace around 3,001 miles away & you're real sure she's waiting patiently for them to show up Included with her collection of poetry are several prose pieces that, like the poems, are angry, evocative and amaz­ingly gentle. It is perhaps this mixture of sensitivity and reality that makes Chrystos' work so memorable. What is perhaps most remarkable about Chrystos' work is that she lets us in at all. This is her life and it is laid bare. Which is why, when it comes down to the poetry and prose of Chrystos, anticipation always overcomes reluc­tance. donalee Moulton, Halifax, N.S.