the practical writer FIRST131 POETS & WRITERScommunity. But 2018 was a bench-
mark year: He was a winner of the
prestigious Unterberg Poetry Cen-
ter’s Discovery Poetry Contest, and
then, a few months later, Kathy Fagan
on behalf of Milkweed Editions se-
lected his book for the National
Poetry Series. In her judge’s state-
ment, Fagan notes: “Experiencing
Jake Skeets’s collection is more akin
to listening to a musical score to, or
watching the choreography of, one
Diné man’s vivid boyhood, the fam-
ily and community of that boyhood,
and the landscape holding them all.
Indeed, like a lover, the land of these
poems enters and ornaments Skeets’s
men, old and young, dead and alive.”
The stars had aligned, it seemed,
and he decided to use the portrait,
as a way to honor his uncle in a book
that addresses the complexity of Diné
masculinity by taking on the violence
and alcoholism on the reservation.
“The newspapers keep mentioning
bodies found ‘in the fields,’ and that
becomes an important phrase in the
book,” Skeets says. “Because in the
fields is also where I’d go to mess
around with other young men. In the
fields is where death and desire happen.
Boys become men, boys learn about
their bodies, and boys lose their lives
in the fields.”
When he received the call about
the publication prize, Skeets was be-
side himself. “I didn’t even know how
to dream!” he says. He contacted his
mentor Bitsui, who very calmly ad-
vised him to “just go with it.” It’s the
best approach at the moment, though
Skeets understands that as an In-
digenous writer the stakes are high,
especially after the outcry against
Sherman Alexie, who is now absent
from the community, having admit-
ted to sexual harassment when multiple
allegations began to circulate early last
year. Thankfully, others like Natalie
Diaz, Layli Long Soldier, Tommy
Orange, and Terese Marie Mailhot
have achieved a level of visibility andrenown that reminds Skeets there’s a
place for him on the American literary
landscape.
We conclude the day at a hipster cof-
fee bar on Nob Hill. We had gone in
search of an old furniture store, but it
was no longer there. The gentrification
of this part of the district has forced a
number of independent businesses to
shutter. We sit down for tea and dessert
anyway, with Yazzie on a seat fashioned
from a suspended swing. When I ask
Skeets for one final thought about Eyes
Bottle Dark With a Mouthf ul of Flowers,
he says he hopes readers will be able
to see the light of the reservation be-
yond the darkness, to see the lush,
energetic landscape of the reservation
that is used in ceremony to heal. “But
I also believe our literature is not in
service to people who don’t know who
we are, though they are welcome to
learn about us by reading our work,”
he quickly adds. “I believe our poetry is
in service to our own communities, so
that we can learn about ourselves.”