what you want most the one thing/
you cannot have or only/
through sacrifice of some cherished part of you/
two small mourners come to listen while you suffer/
but with no advice nothing to be done/
from seven gates through the underworld
Grief sweat is the cleansing ordeal of a sweating hut in time of pain or loss, a ritual shared by First Nation and traditional Irish people. The book is a shred of paper left under a stone in the desert; a map of the territory drawn by somebody who was there.
The poems and fables in it come from what is called "anxious clinical depression," a pale phrase to anyone who has suffered through that life-threatening torment. After the poem "dark angel" finished itself I said, "People are going to think this is an exaggeration. But it’s only a report." The coyote stories are not fiction; gender and species were changed so I could bear to tell them.
The first section was written during emergence—as a record, as a checklist, and in solidarity with my comrades in mental illness who find in all the literature about that country very little word from the travelers themselves. The last section speaks out of the center of the whirlwind, which blew for about two and a half years. I dedicate this book to all those who recognize the landscape. Stay alive; you will get out. —Jody Aliesan
Grief Sweat received a New Works grant from the King County Arts Commission. Published by Broken Moon, Grief Sweat is now being provided by Blue Begonia Press.