Abstract
Nothing to Teach the Mountains is a collection of poems that grapples with the burden of conforming to “subject positionality.” When referring to subject positionality, this calls forth stereotypical, preconceived social rules that govern how one should “act” when entering a landscape or assuming a role. Being a body is often devastating, as much of what happens corporeally is out of our control, but being “somebody” can be even more tumultuous, as we walk through life collecting those positions that comprise our identities. Among the many roles in the collection, the speaker grapples with what it means to be Jewish, male, rural, poor, a son, sibling, student, teacher, rancher, writer, lover, caretaker, surrogate parent, and someone that grieves. Many of the poems are rooted in Eastern Montana, and the speaker is often haunted by and returns to the lifestyle he lived in that landscape and compares it to other landscapes that feel less familiar. A large cast of characters that played pinnacle roles in shaping the speaker’s life including both of his dead parents, three sisters, friends, and many figures from that natural world emerge as their own landscapes of meaning-making. Nothing to Teach the Mountains is meant to ask us to ponder what it means to grieve, what it means to conform to subject positions, and finally, who are we when it is all stripped away?