Shapeshift by Sherwin Bitsui
"Fourteen ninety-something, / something happened / and no one can pick it out of the lineup ..." In words drawn from urban and Navajo perspectives, Sherwin Bitsui articulates the challenge a Native American person faces in reconciling his or her inherited history of lore and spirit with the coldness of postmodern civilization. Shapeshift is a collection of startling new poetry that explores the tensions between the worlds of nature and man. Through brief, imagistic poems interspersed with evocative longer narratives, it offers powerful perceptions of American culture and politics and their lack of spiritual grounding. Linking story, history, and voice, Shapeshift is laced with interweaving images the gravitational pull of a fishbowl, the scent of burning hair, the trickle of motor oil from a harpooned log that speak to the rich diversity of contemporary Dine writing. "Tonight, I draw a raven's wing inside a circlemeasured a half secondbefore it expands into a hand.I wrap its worn grip over our feetAs we thrash against pine needles inside the earthen pot." With complexities of tone that shift between disconnectedness and wholeness, irony and sincerity, Bitsui demonstrates a balance of excitement and intellect rarely found in a debut volume. As deft as it is daring, Shapeshift teases the mind and stirs the imagination.-
Walking the Clouds
-
Saanii Dahataal: the Women Are Singing
-
Corpse Whale
-
For a Girl Becoming
-
Blonde Indian
-
Cell Traffic
-
Woven Stone
-
Beyond the Reach of Time and Change
-
Luminaries of the Humble
-
The Women's Warrior Society
-
A Radiant Curve
-
From the Belly of My Beauty
-
Ocean Power
-
Bone Dance
-
After and Before the Lightning
-
The Names
-
Tseyi' / Deep in the Rock
-
Urban Voices
-
Itch Like Crazy
-
Out There Somewhere
-
Mud Woman
-
Chamorrita Song
-
Life Woven with Song
-
Drowning in Fire
-
Men on the Moon
-
From Sand Creek
-
Blue Horses Rush in
-
The Hawk Is Hungry and Other Stories
-
The Last of the Ofos
-
I Swallow Turquoise for Courage
-
The Roads of My Relations
-
Time Commences in Xibalba
-
Earthquake Weather
Sherwin Bitsui was raised in White Cone, Arizona, on the Navajo Reservation. He is the author of two other books of poetry, among them Flood Song, which won an American Book Award in 2010. He currently lives in Arizona where he has served as the faculty of the Institute of American Indian Arts since 2013.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780816523429 |
| ISBN 10 | 0816523428 |
| Title | Shapeshift |
| Author | Sherwin Bitsui |
| Series | Sun Tracks Ser |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | University of Arizona Press |
| Year published | 2003-09-30 |
| Number of pages | 80 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |