Manifestation Wolverine: The Collected Poetry of Ray Young Bear

Description

From Publishers Weekly Young Bear, a Meskwaki Native American, gathers his three previous releases and introduces a set of new poems in a volume that is predominantly concerned with the natural world and Native ritual beliefs. The book's tone alternates between reverential and ominous: "there are plants breathing wisdom," the land is "slender with meanings," and the sun is seen "ripping its face apart/ and dividing the skin to the eager crows." Elders figure throughout, including one who speaks to the recently deceased in order to "hand them/ their last dream." Another elder's chance encounter with Marilyn Monroe is elevated to mythological status over years of repetition. Young Bear exhibits a jadedness regarding alcoholism, violence, and corrupt community politics, as well as justifiable vitriol for the disregard to nature exhibited by the local whites with their "17th century/ instincts" of exploitation. His new material deals heavily in psychic visions, which were hinted at in earlier poems: one speaker intuits clues about grisly crimes while seated in an enchanted recliner, while another receives information about a missing airplane directly from his kidney. Some elements of Meskwaki tradition may seem inscrutable to newcomers. There is a distinct pleasure in watching Young Bear's work mature and grow more playful over the arc of his career. (Oct.)\n Read more Review “Tenderness, wit, an otherworldly attention, sorrow and abundance, dogs, irony, badgers, troubled girls, peyote and a yellow blanket. Let these poems wash over you and be thankful that Ray Young Bear is with us, here on earth, bearing witness.” —Louise Erdrich “Young Bear expresses feelings of isolation and loss shared by many Americans in the idiosyncratic vernacular of his tribal heritage . . . Highly recommended.” —Booklist “I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that Ray Young Bear is the best poet in Indian Country and in the top 46 in the whole dang world. Sacred and profane, profound and irreverent, his poetry pushes you into a corner, roughs you up a bit, maybe takes your wallet, and then gives you a long kiss goodbye.” —Sherman Alexie   “These are remarkable poems. I read them over and over again, and I become more and more convinced that they proceed from a native intelligence that is at once ancient and contemporary, straightforward and ironic, provocative and insightful. The poet speaks from a kind of timeless experience; his voice is the voice of the coyote or singer of Beowulf or the inventor of words. The Invisible Musician is a work extraordinarily rich and rewarding.” —N. Scott Momaday   “It was clear from Ray Young Bear’s earliest poems that he was a poet of great ability. He has gotten better. The physical detail is ground, and there are mysterious interminglings of water and air that hold the worlds together. The Invisible Musician is rightly titled and a fine book.” —Robert Bly   “[Ray Young Bear is] a national treasure.” —Robert F. Gish   “Ray Young Bear is magic. He writes as if he lived 10,000 years ago in a tribe whose dialect happens to be modern English.” —Richard Hugo   “No one, absolutely no one, tells the tribal story like Young Bear.” —Elizabeth Cook-Lynn   Read more About the Author Ray Young Bear is a lifetime resident of the Meskwaki Settlement in central Iowa. His poems have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Virginia Quarterly Review, New Letters, Prairie Schooner, the Iowa Review, the American Poetry Review, and the Best American Poetry, and have been collected into three books: Winter of the Salamander (1980), The Invisible Musician (1990), and The Rock Island Hiking Club (2001). He also wrote Black Eagle Child: The Facepaint Narratives (1995), a novel combining prose and poetry that was heralded by the New York Times as “magnificent.” Its sequel, Remnants of the First Earth (1998), won the Ruth Suckow Award as an outstanding work of fiction about Iowa. The recipient of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Ray Young Bear has taught creative writing and Native American literature at numerous schools across the United States, including the University of Iowa and the Institute of American Indian Arts. A singer as well as an author, Young Bear is a cofounder of the Woodland Singers & Dancers, which performs contemporary and traditional tribal dances throughout the country. Read more