The Collection, ‘Going Home to Wyoming’ by John Ennis is a retrospective of the poet’s work published between 2000 and 2019, complementing an earlier selection. The book is thematically rather than chronologically organised, exploring concepts of home, displacement, and human rights violations through various poems that reference Irish folklore, classical literature, and contemporary events. It includes a biographical note and acknowledgements, highlighting influences ranging from ancient myths to modern figures and acknowledging publishing and literary support. The collection’s title is notably linked to John Ford’s film Cheyenne Autumn, used as a lens to examine themes of identity and historical injustice.
The significance of “Wyoming” and “Going Home” within this collection is central to its themes, as explored in the book’s introductions and the title poem itself. “Going Home to Wyoming” is the title of the collection, which comprises “Later Selected Poems 2000–2020” by John Ennis, drawing from thirteen previous publications.
The co-editors offer insights into the title’s meaning:
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Renée Sigel states that working on the collection was an invitation to explore the poet’s “internalized universe of influences, experiences, loves and losses”. She connects the title to an “exploration of self and the ‘myth’ of home”. Sigel explicitly links the title to John Ford’s film Cheyenne Autumn of 1964, noting that the collection, particularly the poem ‘Going Home to Wyoming’, captures John Ennis’s honed outrage applied to the idea of ‘America, home of the brave’. She describes the collection as a personal stand by the poet, inviting the reader to consider their own humanity.
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Niall MacGiolla Bhuí, in his introduction titled “WHY WYOMING . . . ?”, also probes the choice of title. He discusses the concept of ‘Home’ as being at once “virtual and real”, a “site of living space and functional necessaria”, a “unit, a focus”. He notes that ‘Home’ is “most noticeable when under-the-roof relationships answer the tides with welcome periods of calm waters”. However, he also points out that it is rare for a home, community, or nation not to be at times “dislocated, even dismembered, or disremembered”.
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MacGiolla Bhuí directly addresses “Wyoming?” by stating it was “Home once of the proud Cheyenne nation” and highlights that the Cheyenne “now comprise a reputed 1.6% of the total population there”. He explicitly links this to John Ford’s Cheyenne Autumn, describing the film as depicting the Cheyenne’s “breakout 1,600-mile trek north from the reservation”. He also mentions that Ford, old and ill during filming, struggled but found solace in “Richard Widmark, whose devout belief never wavered in the People”.
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MacGiolla Bhuí concludes that “Home, then, or its antithesis, is at the core of the book”. This theme of home and displacement is also connected to the persona of Suibhne, described as an “archetypal wanderer or dispossessed”, a “restless, divorced, questioning, Cartesian spirit, never settling again”. The wisdom in the book is seen as derived from various traditions including Nordic, Old Irish, Old English, Beowulf, and Icelandic Sigur Rós.
The poem “Going Home to Wyoming” itself reinforces these themes by beginning with an epigraph from the end of John Ford’s Cheyenne Autumn: “There were still some Cheyenne, who had yet to come home”. The poem then depicts figures in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and mentions “Cheyenne Warriors” urging them to “re-group under new management” and “shorten our trek home”.
Therefore, the significance of “Wyoming” and “Going Home” lies in their representation of displacement and the longing for or complex relationship with home, drawing heavily on the historical context of the Cheyenne nation’s forced removal and journey as depicted in John Ford’s film. This serves as a central metaphor for themes of personal identity, humanity, and the experience of being dispossessed or restless.
-Harry Hickey, April 2025.
