Spirit Bone by Gino Sky, and The Rat Lady at the Company Dump by William Studebaker

Abstract

Reviews 269 Throughout, the imagery of the poems is in keeping with the universal initiation myths which drive the plot. Fanning uses his language deftly. He pulls all the stops of linguistic virtuosity, creating aesthetically satisfying and com­ plete connections. The metaphors are so rich in allusion that an occasional restriction might have been of benefit. Youth wins out over artifice at every turn. Fanning explores the full range of humor from sardonic smiles to deep and liberating laughter. 1 read the title as a composite allusion to John Donne and Ernest Hemingway. Fanning’s persona is indeed an island, but instead of isolating himself he defines the island through connections, demonstrating his ability to reach out from his world. He shares Robertjordan’s recklessness and tempers it with tenderness. This is a satisfying book that should make us look for more. THOMAS AUSTENFELD Drury College Spirit Bone. By Gino Sky. (Boise, Idaho: Limberlost Press, 1991. 48 pages, $ 10.00.) The Rat Lady at the Company Dump. By William Studebaker. (Boise, Idaho: Limberlost Press, 1990. 36 pages, $9.95.) Limberlost Press has demonstrated a heightened respect for poetry in both these collections, each letterpressed on textured bond with illustrated covers befitting substance. Gino Sky’s collection of twenty-two poems, Spirit Bone, throbs with wild diversity, with an intuition cultivated from his native background, but bred cross-ways with 20th-century experience. His powers of observation are incisive and enlightening, his meanings leap-frog conventional logic—but work simply and fully because his sense of wholeness with the earth is congruent through­ out. I marvel most at his powerful expression with few words, yet maintaining an ethereal air of detachment. Each piece is a taste, but the sequitur is solid: Sent to steal fire from the heavens, you contracted out your assignment to the bad breath of constipated angels and returned with large burlap bags of western law. (Coyote Fats) 270 Western American Literature His detachment is joyous—chuckling accounts from the trickster, him­ self—yet overflows with undeniable environmental truths; a refreshing read in light of present pulpit thumping and emotional fanaticism. Those outdoor types who depend on Nature’s soundness for daily survival will treasure “Concho Bluff’; those who seek productivity beyond political and environmen­ tal polarity will recite “Lessons from the War”; those ruralites who’ve contem­ plated the flaws of conventional education will return to “The Road.” “The Storyteller” is an eulogy for all dammed rivers and my favorite, “Dream Shirt,” idealizes the wild state of existence: Genetic ghosts dance molecules in the spheres Outer and inner space of course I trade off and leave no tracks Wapiti, strato cumulus, buffalo grass and redwing blackbird. As diverse as the West itself, this fresh perspective has value and purpose with varied meanings in both time and culture. Falling somewhere between legends, mysticism, and holistic truth, this handsome collection is a solid investment for the head and heart. If the function ofwestern poetry is to blaze trails, Studebaker’s TheRat Lady at the CompanyDump marks an underground career in the mines as one to avoid. The stale, dead air hangs in half this work with only the poet’sintrospective light to sustain the reader through his black, claustrophobic labors within the bowels of the earth. Only the head sends back messages: water, rock, air, and colors I can’t see. Like a person who lives alone I mine shadows for illumination. (Mining at Night) Reviews 271 Studebaker’s craft is solid, but this metaphor hesitates short of any real revelations except that in this everpresent blackness where a man may die by many means, perhaps none but real tunnel vision is possible. Even so, I wished for more. The above-ground half defines the characters and the landscapes in sun­ light. “Holing Through” awakens to the voices outside, and I hear the muse: That’s how I learned voices were real that they can pull me sideways through no hole at all. “Working the Surface,” “In the Dry,” and “Norma Jean” possess an ironic humor consistent with the working western culture—common men and women bigger than life, an unspoken camaraderie of sweat and fear which exudes truth...