Seeing A Bear by James Taylor (review)

Reviews 75 Another asset is Staveley’s account of the psychology of his crew. The best example of which is his humorous description of the “campsite game,” a daily ritual that probably hasn’t changed since Powell’s day when one of his crew members wrote on June 11 that if he had a dog that would lie where he camped that night, he would kill him, bum his collar, and swear he never owned him. Compare this with Staveley: “The object is for the Players to make Dealer [the expedition leader] think he was out of his head in picking a particular time to camp, or place to camp, or better yet both.” (p. Ill) Two major additions are essential to this book: comparative photographs and a more detailed map. The book needs more photographs taken at points established by Powell which would visually illustrate the differences between yesteryear’s living waters and Staveley’s song of “broken waters.” The sole photographic comparison found in the Table of Illustrations is listed incor­ rectly for no photographs were taken on the 1869 expedition. In the photo­ graph’s caption, however, the correct date of 1871 is mentioned. The map of the journey should locate rapids, dams, and reprovisioning points. M a ry E l l e n A c k e r m a n Death Valley National Monument Seeing A Bear. By James Taylor. (Pueblo, Colo.; Poetry Bag Press, 1972. 14 pages, |2.00). This chapbook, written by a transplanted flatlander poet, appeals to two categories of people: those who have seen a bear in its natural habitat and those who have not. In other words, the book is written for everybody! Those who have seen a bear will, in response to this writing, work for recall of detail, stretch the mind to again grasp, re-examine the experience. Those of us who have never set our tame eyes on a wild bear feel as if we too have seen one after reading this exciting book. It has the ring of something that could be­ come a miniature Western classic. Taylor, former editor of Sou’wester and author of a book of poems, Arrival in Laredo, is currently editing the new Black Bear Review, Taos, New Mexico, magazine of the arts. Printed in a limited edition on good, buffcolored paper, Seeing A Bear is physically a beautiful book. It is aptly illus­ trated by Taos artist Jim Wagner. Followers of Western American literature would do well to order this book today since it is showing signs of becoming a collector’s item within the year. Taylor challenges us to face the startling fact of the wilderness, the brute force and power of “the running, shimmering bear.” At times his tone is al­ most religious as he speaks of “the highlights and halos leaping” from the bear’s deep fur. With a poet’s precise eye, he notices the exact color of leaves, branches and pine cones; notices “ the one brown six inch long trout” in the stream. 76 Western American Literature With amazing deftness, Taylor’s prose resounds out into the civilized world, bringing the Rio Grande Canyon vividly to our living rooms. The prose is clean, clear and sharply cut. It blazes out; there is no evading it, no bettering it. The finest example occurs on page 6, wjhere he writes of the relationship between night and the animals. He tells how the animals wait for the familiar cover of the dark, how it reassures them. Then, in a brilliance of language, he tells how the night speaks to the animals, telling them to rise, and move, “Now, soon, go in my dark graces that I have brought from across the word for your free passage." How did Jim Taylor come into this special knoweldge? How did he learn these words? (For there is on doubting the words; we believe instantly that this is exactly what the night has always said to the animals.) There is a moment of keen recognition, the I’ve-read-thissomewhere -before feeling that so often occurs whn one reads a truly great work. It strikes the reader as being completely true. In...