Bitterroot is a collection of poems written by a young teacher who is herself still learning. The best teachers are the ones who don’t offer easy answers for hard questions, and Jessica Jones’ poems raise a galaxy of hard questions. Bitterroot asks the reader to consider the complexities of Native and non-Native co-inhabitation in northwest Montana, valleys and vistas of triumph and hardship. In “Hauling Wood,” a neighbor loans the teacher his ex-wife’s snow pants and boots, which causes the teacher to feel “small and important at the same time.” In reading these verses, I feel small and important, and you will too. The spirit of Bitterroot is this: Let’s learn together and never stop. And let’s be grateful to those who teach us, everyone, everywhere.
Lowell Jaeger, Poet Laureate of Montana, Founder, Many Voices Press
Drawing from years of teaching on the Flathead Indian Reservation, Jessica Jones offers us powerful poems of witness and advocacy informed by her loving participation in the lives of her students. She weaves her present-day teaching with historical records of government policies and mistreatment of Native peoples, making her homeroom a site of truth and reconciliation, a place where she is alternately teacher, ally, or “once again the student.” “Ask—We urge from the chalkboard—keep asking—Whose voice is missing? Who flutters on the margin of the page, the schoolyard, the city limits waiting—to interject?” Bitterroot is a stunning collection of essential poems, each one “a small act, this affirmation of life.”
David Hassler, Director, Wick Poetry Center, 2006 Ohio Poet of the Year
Bitterroot captures the enchanting intricacies of loving a particular place. Jones speaks to tender moments of living and life with rare wisdom and insight. I felt secreted away, young again, in a classroom with a passionate teacher who sees all the world has to offer.
Debra Magpie Earling, Professor of Fiction & Native Studies, University of Montana, 2007 Guggenheim Fellow
