May a man look up from the utter hardship of his life and say: let me be like these. Hölderlin, In Lovely Blue. 1 Circa 1400 BCE. An olive tree in Vouvés, Crete. From ‘vouvismos’ meaning the whispering of the river flowing through. It wasn’t the only thing that lived then. There were many: cicadas and acanthus flowers, cacti and […]
Ecosystems
A Lesson From Ancient Polylepis Trees
A couple weeks ago, I wandered the Polylepis forest in the Chimborazo Park Reserve. After a two-hour trek through the sandy trail, passing by vicuna animals and native Andean shrubs, I saw the entrance. The sight of the trees with their branches reaching out in all directions struck me.
In the Green
I’m not a very good nature tour guide. For one thing, I don’t know much about nature. For another, I walk very quickly; I have to keep reminding myself to slow down. Despite my shortcomings; however, two days before Halloween 2019, I take my English Composition class on a walk to a nearby greenspace, a short walk from our community college campus in Queens. Greenspace. It’s such a recent compound that Word autocorrects it into two.
Eyes
Blue eyes, sometimes grey and stormy Others clear as cloudless day. One moment safe Enveloped in translucent depths Next, the ice wall melts Glaciers crash below; an enormous splash Waves build A mountain face of swirling color, kaleidoscope of shimmering light Smothering Drowning Swallowing blue and salt and foam Choking Spewing Struggling to swim up Desperate for air Weak arms […]
Gathering Chips
One of my favorite photographs hangs in my bathroom. At its center is a wheelbarrow, with wooden handles, braces, and legs. The ten-spoke wheel is iron. Cow chips – dry dung – are stacked two feet high in the tray. They also litter the grassy landscape, which is over-exposed and unending. In black and white, each chip looks like a […]
In town
I followed my mother down a winding forest path. The trail head peaks through the trees that line the softball field down the street from my house. You wouldn’t know it was there if you weren’t looking for it. Gnarled tree roots reach up from the soil, weaving across the path—the perfect snare for an imprecise step. Gusts of wind had recently […]
Sailboats, Submarines, and the Sea
The first thing I did during my tryout for the sailing team was crash straight into the seawall. Everyone at the Naval Academy is required to be part of a sports team. I did track in high school, but there was no way I was making the team at the Academy, and I was forced to shop around for alternatives. My dad owned […]
Rehabbing Rain
In the Shade of the Cottonwood Tree I was born and raised in the desert. Like most desert plants and animals, I love rain. I live for rain. I live because of rain. Rain heals me, as it heals and seals the cracked surfaces of sunbaked arroyos and limestone canyon walls. It peels back the membranes of seedpods, freeing them […]
Ten Sleep
For an audio version, here is Jesse reading the piece on his Yonder Lies Podcast. On a hot day in the summer of 2018, I woke up to red and blue lights saturating the white dolomite walls that loom over the Ten Sleep Rock Ranch, the new rock climber’s campground in the canyon just upstream of the town of Ten Sleep, Wyoming. I had been […]
Flipping the switch: A clean energy future for Brayton Point? (Part II)
With the retirement of the Brayton Point coal plant, can this former coal town redefine itself as an offshore wind energy hub?
Flipping the switch: A coal plant retirement and a community’s response (Part I)
With the retirement of the Brayton Point coal plant, can this former coal town redefine itself as an offshore wind energy hub?
Women of the Wildlands
On the frontlines of the California wildfires, a group of women looks to redefine an industry.