Overview

A bear can be a person, though most prefer to be bears. Did a coyote ever lead you to a story? Have you ever lost yourself in the blue-black eye of a raven? Imagine three such creatures transitioning from people to animals and back, walking along a desert highway dressed in their finest three-piece suits: ribbon shirts, jeans, and moccasins, foraging a city alley for supper, or sharing stories under a starlit sky. If you listen closely, you could learn something from these three magical creatures. In his first book of poems, Jason Grundstrom-Whitney introduces us to numerous variations of this American trio. Sometimes Bear gets his paw stuck in a back-street dumpster. Coyote shows people how to trick themselves. Raven travels to the far north to bring back another story. The poems in Bear, Coyote, and Raven welcome the reader into their shape shifting world, where themes of environmental degradation, violence, and technological troubles explore what we have lost and suggest solutions: to connect with the web of being and those blessed in their own right. The poet asks us to engage, to take the time to invest our energy, and to explore this different way of being.

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Reviews

Playful, imaginative, respectful, insightful, droll, emotional, shrewd-these poems cast a spell that brings the reader into the very web of earthly-and beyond earthly-being. The characters are classic figures-Bear, Coyote, Raven-that in Jason Grundstrom-Whitney's able hands take on very distinct lives. There are poem-stories in this book to live by and treasure, the old wisdom made new-a beautiful and real achievement. -Baron Wormser, Maine Poet Laureate 2000-2006, Guggenheim and NEA Fellow Whitney's work in Bear, Coyote, Raven delves deep into the crevasses of our unconscious selves connecting our human nature to the elements and wild chaos we come from, and can so easily return to. His writing is clear, and wonderfully alive weaving us into that great mystery where 'spring is [constantly] born' within us. 'Dust seeks dust, wild seeks wild' is a truth he recognizes in all transformations we embrace or run from. This book is a dance of life, and Whitney's words humble us with their beauty, sensibility, and ancient truth. -Claire Hersom, author, Drowning: A Poetic Memoir, (Moon Pie Press) Spirituality braided with the power of nature's world thrums through every line of Jason's poetry. These jewel-like poems carry themes of transformation and reunion with the wild, a call to see the world with refreshed eyes, to recall we are part of an integrated web where no creature or plant is less important than any other. Jason's work reminds us we are woven into the wheel of time and nature, and his lyricism awakens souls numbed into slumber by urban modernity. Nothing is more urgently needed while we stand on the precipice of climate disaster than the spirit called forth in Bear, Coyote, Raven. -Deborah Rosch Eifert, PhD, clinical psychologist, semi-finalist in the 2018 Split Rock Review Chapbook Competition. Neon and silence-where city streets meet desert, visions flow through daily life, hunger meets a desperate meal only to have to run again, claws meet fingers, where music ties it all together and unties it all, stars and people separate and reunite-clearly Jason Whitney has spent a lot of time at all kinds of lonely crossroads-and come back full of blues and compassion and knowing, remembering, a time when we walked together/for a short while. -Jay Franzel, organizer, The Bookey Readings at Harlow Gallery

In his impressive first book, Bear, Coyote, Raven, Jason Grundstrom-Whitney takes us deep into the mythic. These poems span many worlds from Deep Time to modern day powwows and move effortlessly between the sacred and irreverent, humor and awe, grief and resistance. Bear breaking guitar strings with his claws as he attempts to play, dreaming the constellations; Raven collecting shiny things as gifts for lovers, absorbing the sins of the world and transforming them in his own body; Coyote walking the trail of the Milky Way, tapping his foot to the bass line of a Mingus tune. This is storytelling at its best, poetry that sees so that we may see, songs that invite us into mystery, stories that heal. --Cheryl Savageau, author Home Country (1992), Dirt Road Home: Poems (1995) nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and Mother/Land (2006) Playful, imaginative, respectful, insightful, droll, emotional, shrewd--these poems cast a spell that brings the reader into the very web of earthly--and beyond earthly--being. The characters are classic Native figures--Bear, Coyote, Raven--that in Jason Grundstrom-Whitney's able hands take on very distinct lives. There are poem-stories in this book to live by and treasure, the old wisdom made new--a beautiful and real achievement. --Baron Wormser, Maine Poet Laureate 2000-2006, Guggenheim and NEA Fellow Whitney's work in Bear, Coyote, Raven delves deep into the crevasses of our unconscious selves connecting our human nature to the elements and wild chaos we come from, and can so easily return to. His writing is clear, and wonderfully alive weaving us into that great mystery where 'spring is [constantly] born' within us. 'Dust seeks dust, wild seeks wild' is a truth he recognizes in all transformations we embrace or run from. This book is a dance of life, and Whitney's words humble us with their beauty, sensibility, and ancient truth. --Claire Hersom, author, Drowning: A Poetic Memoir, (Moon Pie Press) Spirituality braided with the power of nature's world thrums through every line of Jason's poetry. These jewel-like poems carry themes of transformation and reunion with the wild, a call to see the world with refreshed eyes, to recall we are part of an integrated web where no creature or plant is less important than any other. Jason's work reminds us we are woven into the wheel of time and nature, and his lyricism awakens souls numbed into slumber by urban modernity. Nothing is more urgently needed while we stand on the precipice of climate disaster than the spirit called forth in Bear, Coyote, Raven. --Deborah Rosch Eifert, PhD, clinical psychologist, semi-finalist in the 2018 Split Rock Review Chapbook Competition. Neon and silence--where city streets meet desert, visions flow through daily life, hunger meets a desperate meal only to have to run again, claws meet fingers, where music ties it all together and unties it all, stars and people separate and reunite--clearly Jason Whitney has spent a lot of time at all kinds of lonely crossroads--and come back full of blues and compassion and knowing, remembering, a time when we walked together/for a short while. --Jay Franzel, organizer, The Bookey Readings at Harlow Gallery

Author Information

Jason Grundstrom-Whitney's poetry has appeared in 3 Nations Anthology: Native, Canadian & New England Writers and in the Underground Writers Association's Anthology of Maine Poets. The band Osha Root recently produced a CD featuring his music and poetry. Jason has spent a lifetime working on Native American Rights, Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence survival, Hospice and end of life care, homeless and environmental issues, and alternative medicine practice. Jason studied with native teachers and many others while he hitch-hiked across America for two and a half years. Jason is a father, grandfather, and husband, and has been in recovery for 37 years.

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