“Jacklight” turns out to be the perfect poem with which to start a class: an Erdrich class, a Native lit class, a poetry class, maybe any class. It holds many mysteries to unravel but isn’t so opaque as to overwhelm. Is the plural “we” speaker of the poem bears, animals, generic prey, Ojibwe people, Indigenous people, and/or Native authors? What about the addressee, the “they”? Could be generic hunters, Ojibwe hunters, white hunters, colonizers, and/or readers. The students surprise you with their insights, their questions, the formal features they notice, their willingness to meditate at length on the nature of a bear’s sense of smell. (And, yes, they also teach you what a jacklight is.) You leave the room feeling very grateful for this group and this poem.
“And now they take the first steps, not knowing
How deep the woods are and lightless.
How deep the woods are” (Louise Erdrich’s “Jacklight,” final lines)
Into the woods you go…