Review by Deborah K Frontiera
Not so long ago, there didn’t seem to be much Upper Peninsula, Michigan, literature or poetry published. Now there is an abundance. Some skeptics might say there is enough, or think What, another UP Poetry book? Another “outsider” arriving to experience life in the woods.
Certainly, Suzanne is not the first (and probably not the last) to leave the “city” and escape to our lovely UP wilderness. She did so for some of the usual reasons: to find herself again after a loss, to do something vastly different, for a complete change … But in Still Wild: poems from bear shack, Suzanne Sunshower does it with such lovely metaphors, descriptions, and deep thoughts that it is very worth the journey.
Take, for example, her symbolism for “The Bridge”:
“I winged across to rise above my past
while reaching out to my future.” (page 8)
Or this from “Putting the UP in North”:
My mind is an overstuffed appetizer.
I knew this.
so much fretting going on.
Much of Part I is getting used to her new world. Some of which are the usual on mice, squirrels, chickadees, trees, but with a twist of knowing which sound is from whom, and of bonding with her dog.
Or this from “April Ice Storm”:
Funny how I enjoyed the chilly ride
of winter—who would believe
I don’t want winter to go?
But with this last storm’s end,
comes spring—its muddy feet
kicking in my door …”
By the end of Part I, readers will see a very different perspective on UP life through the eyes of a Black urban woman, which is most enlightening.
In Part II, her poetic vision of the U.P. is “more mature” and meanings get even deeper. “Looking Ahead” compares the building of storms clouds (and wondering if the storm will hit her) to life and keeping one’s eyes on the road. She finally begins to know the trees by name describing them as “31 Flavors.” And a few pages later, writes about cars from a deer’s point of view, followed by the poet’s point of view on the deer.
More than a few bits of humor show up in nature. There’s her poem about the dog rolling in the grass, which reminded her of how her mother yelled at her for getting all dirty rolling on the ground, ending with:
“Mud, snow, rolling on the ground–
I love that my dog loves what I love.
but how did I also become my mom?”
Suzanne Sunshower
That poem brought to my mind the days when my mother made me pick deadheads off petunias in her flower boxes—to the point that I swore I would never grow petunias. Fifty-some years later, I caught myself picking dead heads from the petunias in my hanging baskets on the porch!
Part III takes us through the poet’s realization that she has come through the grief in her life to become a different person, older, wiser, ready to leave the woods to return to society. This theme came through strongly in her three-part description of the ice storm of 2025 and in her comparison of that with the changes in her life. Having gotten through all of it, she chooses to stay in “the wild.”
Still Wild: poems from bear shack is a volume of poetry to munch on a few poems at a time, pause to digest them, and then munch a few more, or go back and savor some a second time.
Still Wild, Poems from the Bear Shack
By Suzanne Sunshower
ISBN 979-8-89656-060-9 Yooper Poetry Series, Modern History Press, Ann Arbor MI, 2025, Ret. 18.95 PB
