Shapeshift (Sun Tracks) [Paperback]

Sherwin Bitsui (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2003 | Series: Sun Tracks (Book 52)

"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 Diné writing. "Tonight, I draw a raven's wing inside a circle
measured a half second
before it expands into a hand.
I wrap its worn grip over our feet
As 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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Bitsui’s poetry is elegant, probative and original. His vision connects worlds." —New Mexico Magazine "What is exciting about Shapeshift is the fresh voice and perspective it introduces to Native American and Navajo literature. The times and attitudes have changed, and Shapeshift does not ignore this fact. . . . A must-read for anyone interested in discovering a new Native American author." —Navajo Times “His images can tilt on the side of surrealism, yet his work can be compellingly accessible.”—Arizona Daily Star

From the Back Cover

"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 Diné writing. 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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: University of Arizona Press; 1ST edition (September 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816523428
• ISBN-13: 978-0816523429
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 6.1 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #459,861 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Difficult Poetry, But Hard Won Reward, January 27, 2006

By 

Constance M. Gotsch "Novelist On Board" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shapeshift (Sun Tracks) (Paperback)

In the 1920s, the then new-rage modern dancer, Isadora Duncan said "the entrance comes before the exit and the exit before the entrance." She meant life is circular and interwoven--a journey with repeated feelings, roots, and themes. Her idea came immediately to mind when I read Sherwin Bitsui's SHAPESHIFT. This little book of poetry blends Navajo mythlogy and modern America in a non-linear post-modern fashion. The idea of constant change permeates the book. Horses peel into sunflowers. Leaves curl around a hand and swallow it. Yet as the changes swirls, Bitsui inserts constant references to his Navajo roots and spirituality, giving him, and us a place to hang on and start fro, to cope with whatever comes. It is this firm sense of place that holds SHAPESHIFT together. Finding our place in each poem, we can then take our time to savor Bitsui's rich, and sometimes unexpected imagry and universal message--we all must deal with change in our own way. SHAPESHIFT is his way of coping. We can join him on his journey of learning how, because if we know our place in the universe, we can return to it and drew strength from it to go out again and face our ever changing world. The very name SHAPESHIFT reflects this thought. The word implies change, (shifting shapes) and has firm roots in Navajo tradition. However, SHAPESHIFT is not an easy book to read. It can take several passes to get into Bitsui's images and ideas. But once that happens, he offers a a unique philsophy to adapt to our own lives.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What the Cutting Edge Looks Like, September 3, 2004

By 

Lise Goett (New Mexico, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Shapeshift (Sun Tracks) (Paperback)

While Bitsui's work readily draws comparison to the work of Luci Tapahonso and Esther Belin, it belies the character of dissonance at work and that Bitsui, far from being derivative, has sculpted his own aesthetic out of his cultural persoectives. In Bitsui's work, as in the moral and psychological universe of Mediterranean poet René Char, Dine (Navajo) wisdom retains its unique and radical difference from the cold world of Puritan postmodernism. For Bitsui, the ceremony of integration is not an easy one. Things do not merge into a blurred likeness, they do not compromise each other, or themselves, by doing so. Each extreme keeps its extreme nature, and this, for me, is what gives Bitsui's work its knife edge. These are not poems of easy transcendence, despite the creative drive to transform pain into something which might bless or save us. His is a sensibility shaped by a landscape in which the forces of mountain, sky, sun, and desert exist together in their most concentrated and relentless forms and Bitsui's aesthetic acknowledges the surrealism of everyday life, leaping from the conscious to the unconscious and back again, and make references to what are, for me, the more powerful spheres of intuitive, spiritual, and sexual knowing that appear informed by his culture. Whatever one's opinion of Bitsui's work, he is certainly a poet to watch, this volume selling out of its first printing within the first eight months of its debut.