River Ask Me Why: Into the West on Two Wheels

Literature & Fiction

Griffin, Shaun T.

Poetry

Southern Utah University Press

No Charity in the Wilderness is a long journey into the new American West.&nbsp;From the southern border to the isolating two-lane highways in the desert, this collection is&nbsp;a prayer of reconciliation with so much that troubles us--those who live without resources or voices--and their possible future in this ever-changing landscape of desire. Griffin has spent many decades in the high desert&nbsp;trying&nbsp;to find the way forward--when what he knows has been challenged and still there is breath on the horizon.&nbsp;One day an ancient Chinese poet comes to visit:&nbsp;"Snow deepens/ to quiet what I once believed, and Wang Wei stoops from the spine:/ this is how you become silence." Even if you doubt the old poet's counsel, like Griffin, you want to journey with him into the wilderness. &nbsp;

No Charity in the Wilderness: Poems (Western Literature and Fiction Series)

University of Nevada Press

“Think of a man walking in the desert,” writes Griffin, “looking for the path to its summit, looking for the observatory that may, at last, shed light on what’s below.” In this luminous and moving book of essays, award-winning author Shaun Griffin weaves together a poetic meditation on living meaningfully in this world. Anchored in the American West but reaching well beyond, he recounts his discoveries as a poet and devoted reader of poetry, a teacher of the disadvantaged, a friend of poets and artists, and a responsible member of the human family. Always grounded in place, be it Nevada, South Africa, North Dakota, Spain, Zimbabwe, or Mexico, Griffin confronts the world with an openness that allows him to learn and grow from the people he meets. This is a meditation on how all of us can confront our own influences to achieve wholeness in our lives. Along with Griffin, readers will reflect on how they might respond to a homeless man walking through central Nevada, viewing the open desert as Thoreau might have viewed Walden, seeing the US-Mexico border as a region of lost identity, reconciling how poets who live west of the Hudson River find anonymity to be their laurel, and experiencing how writing poetry in prison becomes lifesaving. Whether poets or places in the West or beyond, experiences with other cultures, or an acute awareness that poetry is the refuge of redress—all have influenced Griffin’s writing and thinking as a poet and activist in the Great Basin. The mindfulness of Because the Light Will Not Forgive Me demonstrates that even though the light does not forgive, it still reveals.

Because the Light Will Not Forgive Me: Essays from a Poet

Essays & Correspondence

The twin axes of poetry— lyric and elegy— shepherd The Monastery of Stars. In these beautiful poems, Shaun Griffin sings for dead poets and the prisoners who are both his students and brothers. Everywhere through this luminous book— I could even say eternally—the land is partnered by “Art’s rudimentary hand in the petroglyphs” (“On the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Arts Council”). Nevada is lucky to have the tender mercy of this poet.
~ Claudia Keelan
In previous books, Shaun Griffin has described the Nevada high desert with the beauty and candor that Wendell Berry employs in writing about green Kentucky. Here Griffin turns his gaze to other places such as Latin America and Spain and creates a monument to the dignity of people he meets and observes. His portraits of those who have suffered or who are on the down-side of advantage are in league with the empathy of Philip Levine or the witnessing of Carolyn Forché.
~ Gary Short

The Monastery of Stars

Kelsay Books

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Books by Griffin, Shaun T.