Dave Wood’s Book Report, Nov. 5, 2008
“Red osier dogwood, the Indians called it kinnickinnic, took inside their lungs smoke from the bark mixed with bear root and tobacco leaves.By: Dave Wood,
“Red osier dogwood,
the Indians called
it kinnickinnic,
took inside their lungs
smoke from the bark
mixed with bear
root and tobacco
leaves. Lime-green
during warm months,
a cut branch
can grow new roots
even in sandy soil,
earning red willow
its reputation
for resurrection.
At spring equinox
when the summer
yet to be born
has traveled midway
on its long path
out of darkness,
I drive past fields
still sealed by snow,
where March clouds ruffle
like eaglets’ down.
The most vivid color
above or below
is the crimson shine
of kinnickinnic
woven from the smoky
gray ditches.
My winter-
emptied heart
gathers itself,
a willow basket,
to catch that dark
alizarin burnish.
Then I too stand up
out of the scabbed ice
of a dead season,
ready to flower and leaf
again from a bare red stick.”
That’s the opening poem in River Falls, Wis., poet Thomas R. Smith’s latest collection of verse, “Kinnickinnic” (Parallel Press, University of Wisconsin, no price). If there’s a poet more in touch with nature around him than Smith, I’m not acquainted.
As long as we’re at complimenting Midwestern writers, let’s move further west to Montanan Ivan Doig and his latest, “The Eleventh Man” (Harcourt, $26). Doig takes his cue from the 1941 Montana State football team that went undefeated that year. After Pearl Harbor, all the team members enlist and go to various corners of the earth to engage in the deadly struggle. One footballer, the eleventh man, is Ben Reinking, who is pulled from the paratroopers and ordered by the brass to make heroes out of his teammates. So in the course of the novel its hero meets his old buddies, records their adventures, their deaths and all the fortunes of war that befall those who engage in such activity.
Doig is a master at bringing to life past events in history, as evidenced by his most recent book, “The Whistling Season,” reviewed in this column, a book set in post-World War II Montana. Doig is now at work bringing back a sequel of the award-nominated novel, featuring the school teacher Morrie Morgan.
Dave Wood is a past vice president of the National Book Critics Circle and former book review editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Questions? Call him at 715.426.9554.
Tags: entertainment, dave, wood, book, report, 5nov, 2008
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