Marvin Kananen

Raca Roaming Marvin Kananen

For twelve wonderful years Marvin Kananen lived in a 10 x 10 cabin in the Cascade Mountains of Western Washington. He sought only two things, to write and to live soberly. Unexpectedly, he found a third thing, a mentor to tame his wild soul (there are stories that continue to be told about him) and give him peace. The name of his mentor is The Wilderness. The one who entered the forest was not the same as the one who exited a dozen years later. These 36 poems tell that story with the heart of one who lived in awe of the Wilderness. It is, most incredibly, a love story. The poems are seasonal but not chronological. They do not tell you the end of the story, how Kananen eventually married, moved to the city, became a university professor, and concluded his working career as a missionary among the Maasai in East Africa. All this happened because there was a lost and lonely soul who dared enter the big woods. These poems are not the work of the poet, they are the work of the Wilderness.