SOURCE: A review of Winter of the Salamander, in Southwest Review, Vol. 66, No. 4, Autumn, 1981, pp. 427-30.

In the following excerpt, Sheridan applauds Winter of the Salamander for its imagery and "ambition," but faults Young Bear for his political and social commentary and his emphasis on dreams.

Young Bear's book [Winter of the Salamander] is, I am sorry to say, seriously flawed. Too often Young Bear lapses into stilted or bloated language: "faraway trains ring the existence of time"; "i relinquished that i had been correct / in not going out to the night"; "we stood like lonely eagles / huddled against each other …" When Young Bear's poems make political or social commentary, they sometimes sound like letters-to-the-editor:

       … they're no different except for the side
       of railroad tracks they were born on
       and whatever small town social
       prominence they were born into.
       it is the same attitude shared by lesser
       intelligent...