Spring/Summer 2009 | Volume 25 | Number 3 VOLUME 25 | NUMBER 3 | spRING/SUMMER 2009 | $8.00 Deriving from the German weben—to weave—weber translates into the literal and figurative “weaver” of textiles and texts.Weber (the word is the same in singular and plural) are the artisans of textures and discourse, the artists of the beautiful fabricating the warp and weft of language into ever-changing pattterns. Weber, the journal, understands itself as a tapestry of verbal and visual texts, a weave made from the threads of words and images. Reflections and aphorisms to give us pause Heredity is nothing but stored environment. —Luther Burbank (1849-1926) A land ethic, then, reflects the existence of an ecological conscience, and this in turn reflects a conviction of individual responsibility for the health of the land. Health is the capacity of the land for self-renewal. Conservation is our effort to understand and preserve this capacity. —Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) One means of sanity is to retain a hold on the natural world . Americans still have that chance, more than many peoples. —Wallace Stegner (1909-1993) High technology has done us one great service: It has retaught us the delight of performing simple and primordial tasks—chopping wood, building a fire, drawing water from a spring. —Edward Abbey (1927-1989) Front Cover: Sharon Siskin; Children of Abraham: Learn; 2006; Arabic and Hebrew children’s educational texts, blackboard, cotton thread, yarn, bandages, mirror, wood; 17” x 17” x 2” VOLUME 25 | NUMBER 3 | SPRING/SUMMER 2009 | $8.00 EDITOR CONVERSATION Michael Wutz 2 Brad L. Roghaar, Repossessing History and the “insect ASSOCIATE EDITORS Kathryn L. MacKay Brad Roghaar chorus in the grass”—A Conversation with Eleanor Wilner Russell Burrows Victoria Ramirez ART MANAGING EDITOR Kay Anderson 74 Sharon Siskin, Children of Abraham EDITORIAL BOARD Susan Clark, Eastern Sierra Institute ESSAY Katharine Coles, U of Utah Fred Erisman, Texas Christian U 20 Eleanor Wilner, “How with this rage…”—Poetry in a Eleanor Wilner……2 Gary Gildner, independent author Time of War and Atrocity Duncan Harris, U of Wyoming 90 Frederick H. Swanson, Rooted Diana Joseph, Minnesota State U Nancy Kline, independent author & translator 96 Nancy Matson, The Best I’ve Worked With James A. MacMahon, Utah State U 112 Mary Beth Ellis, The National Tonic Fred Marchant, Suffolk U 135 Jan Wellington, Raccoon Limbo Madonne Miner, Weber State U 146 Sheila Nickerson, My Short Life in Astrophysics Felicia Mitchell, Emory & Henry College Julie Nichols, Utah Valley State College FICTION Tara Powell, U of South Carolina Bill Ransom, Evergreen State College Walter L. Reed, Emory U 32 Mark Hummel, Water Cycle Scott P. Sanders, U of New Mexico 40 Luciana Lopez, At the Falls Daniel R. Schwarz, Cornell U 64 Josiah McClellan, Raising the River Andreas Ströhl, Filmfestival Munich 124 Daniel Robinson, Annie’s Place James Thomas, editor and writer Robert Torry, U of Wyoming GLOBAL SPOTLIGHT Robert Van Wagoner, independent author Melora Wolff, Skidmore College 52 Ha Jin, Shame EDITORIAL PLANNING BOARD Bradley W. Carroll John R. Sillito POETRY Brenda M. Kowalewski Michael B. Vaughan Angelika Pagel 31 Eleanor Wilner, Geopolitics ADVISORY COMMITTEE 38 Susan Kelly-Dewitt, How the River Sleeps and other Meri DeCaria Barry Gomberg poems Elaine Englehardt John E. Lowe 50 Terry E. Lockett, Planting and Blackbirds DeAnn Evans Aden Ross 87 Paul J. Willis, After Descending from Buck Creek Pass to The Art of Sharon Siskin…74 Shelley L. Felt Robert B. Smith a Campsite on the Chiwawa River and other poems G. Don Gale Mikel Vause 106 Anthony Walstorm, The Hound and other poems LAYOUT CONSULTANTS 108 Paul Gibbons, New Mexico Highlands: Muse by Mark Biddle Jason Francis Accident and other poems 120 Michael Meinhardt, What it comes to and A Feign of EDITORS EMERITI Imminent Gestures Brad L. Roghaar LaVon Carroll Sherwin W. Howard Nikki Hansen 122 Simon Perchik, poems Neila Seshachari 144 Daniel Nathan Terry, Nighthawks and In the Tattoo Parlor EDITORIAL MATTER CONTINUED IN BACK 151 READING THE WEST C ONVERS AT ION Brad L. Roghaar Repossessing History and the “insect chorus in the grass” A Conversation with Eleanor Wilner Photo collage by Catherine Jansen PRELUDE Occasionally you get the opportunity to Much has been said in praise of Wilner’s meet a truly exceptional personality. Being poetry—all of the praise is accurate. She has close to poetry increases the likelihood of published six collections of poems: Maya such a meeting, and Eleanor Wilner is such (1979), Shekhinah (1984), Sarah’s Choice a personality. I am not sure that I have ever (1989), Otherwise (1993), Reversing the visited with a poet or individual of such Spell: New and Selected Poems (1998), intense yet quiet intellect—she draws from and The Girl with Bees in Her Hair (2004). a deep well. Perhaps even more unique is Other publications include a verse translation how what she knows is so comfortingly of Euripides’ Medea ( 998) and a book on tempered by a sensitivity to the world and visionary imagination, Gathering the Winds those who inhabit it—animal and mineral. (1975). A frequent contributor to literary She possesses a genuine love for some and a journals and magazines, her work has appeared surprising tolerance for some others, which in over thirty anthologies, including Best only comes from an indiscriminate (but American Poetry 1990 and The Norton much considered) interest in most of every- Anthology of Poetry (Fourth Edition). thing. It is the intense interest in what you Wilner is a much sought after lecturer and are doing rather than a focus on what she is reader. She is a “teacher” in every sense of the doing that is so unique and so engaging— word. She has taught and guest lectured at to talk with Eleanor Wilner is to talk about numerous colleges and universities, including yourself as well. Smith College, University of Chicago, North- An early civil rights and anti-war western, University of Iowa, University of activist, she continues a commitment to act Hawaii, and University of Utah. Former editor upon an unwaivering respect and love for to The American Poetry Review, she is all forms of life. Simultaneously she rejects currently on the faculty of the MFA Program the violence and ignorance that smothers our for Writers at Warren Wilson College. She “better nature” and threatens our survival. has won a MacArthur Fellowship, the Juniper She is a true champion of peace and justice. Prize, and grants from the National Endow- Curiously, she is not an ideologue—some- ment for the Arts. thing I have seldom (perhaps never) seen in I first met Eleanor while she was a visit- a person so often reputed as “activist” or ing poet at Weber State University’s National “political.” Perhaps this, although rare, is Undergraduate Literature Conference in early not so surprising. To read and re-read Wil- April of 2008. On a pleasantly long and bril- ner’s work is to participate in the great joy of liantly clear afternoon, Eleanor and I began this discovery through the happy exercise of the interview at my kitchen table, periodically gaz- intellect—free of the dark cave of neurosis, ing out the French doors upon the late greening personal or otherwise. She is one of poetry’s of a typical spring in the Wasatch Range of great gifts and treasures. northern Utah. It was a wonderful day. To read and re-read Wilner’s work is to participate in the great joy of discovery through the happy exercise of the intellect—free of the dark cave of neurosis, personal or otherwise. She is one of poetry’s great gifts and treasures. SPRING / SUMMER 2 0 0 9 3 CONVERSATION The first thing that I noticed in your latest in some psychology. So, nobody knew what book The Girl with Bees in Her Hair is I was doing—it was an unique and happy that you added the middle name “Rand” experience (laughs) getting a PhD. And then to your author page. In this book you are it was, you know, it was useful in terms of Eleanor Rand Wilner. Why the change? teaching from then on, too, just to have that on your record, but that wasn’t why I did it. Yes. I have a ninety-eight year old father who It was—I just had the opportunity to follow is ruing the fact that he had no sons and my own nose and, well, write about what I that his name could was interested in. vanish from the earth. So, I put the patronym Part of the way in which you Do you do the same thing when you write on this book, which I create new myths is by re- hadn’t done before. poetry—follow your revitalizing and changing, often own nose? So, it is an acknowl- radically, the stories that we are edgement of respect for Exactly. I find it to your father? handed down in the books, the be the best way mythologies of our culture. You to proceed. It is, indeed. Yes! know, in some ways you have to When you started You mentioned that go out by the door you came in. writing poetry, did you came to writing you recognize right poetry later in your away that this was life. something that you wanted to do—that you might be able to do—and that other people Yes, I was forty-two when I published would respond to it? the first book. No, I didn’t think about other people—at all. I And before that what were you doing? think it was a way of understanding what was going on.