Chokecherry Places: Essays from the High Plains

The Lakota word for bluebird, writes High Plains poet Gilfillan, is a verb meaning something like "to pass by all in blue." Gilfillan turns the endless hazy vistas of Wyoming, Colorado, and the Dakotas into verbs all their own, populating them with crows, magpies, meadowlarks, passing clouds--and always with stories derived from history and from his own travels. He is especially drawn to buttes, river bottoms, and sandy ridges, the difficult landscapes that "house and shelter the talisman and nurturing myth, the taproot metaphysics of any geography." Visiting places like Turtle Mountain, Devil's Lake, and Heart River, Gilfillan offers fine tribute to a little-heralded corner of the world. --Gregory McNamee