Frozen in a burnt copper substrate, surrounded
With whorls and tides of a creature’s past, a steadfast
Recent Articles
Algae, Wood, and a Singular Bowl
Four slats of discolored wood possess salmon streaks and steel
Fever
All night, your cheeks were hot, little one. I listened to your wails through the crackling yellow monitor next to my bed. Your father and I threw off our covers and walked up the stairs to your room. He lifted you from the crib and held you against his chest. Your cries became whimpers. I got out a plastic syringe […]
Stone Memory
On July 23rd, 2018, I witnessed a 10’ flash flood tear past my Santa Fe home. A tsunami in a quiet valley, washing downstream animals, debris, and tumbling boulders, leaving behind a raw and reordered landscape.
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.
Re-Memories of Warming
Memories are translations. We gather much and miss more. I originally compiled this archive in spring of 2022 for a final project in a course on environmental histories and values. I did it mostly for myself. I wanted to attend to what I had picked up throughout the pandemic — people, places, poems, photographs. These fragments are re-memories of ecosystems and relational nests.
A Visit to “The New York Earth Room”
Today’s itinerary: visit Earth Room, where a layer of soil, two feet thick, has occupied a gallery in SoHo since 1977.
The Apple Orchard
When we moved back to Michigan, we bought an old farmhouse on five acres. I was still married then, with three young daughters and soon two more. After we had settled in, I planted an apple orchard. The farmhouse was a white Greek Revival with four bedrooms and an old lilac out front. It stood on a barely perceptible rise […]
The Quiet Season
The days are short and cold, and it snowed last Sunday. The tree canopies, now brown, have thinned. The birds have begun migrating southwards — I hear their calls from my room, where I sip coffee — and people in puffy parkas rush to and fro along the sidewalks. Gray clouds float low in the sky. Although the December solstice […]
The Felled and the Fallen
Ring in two by twos,Twinning from the same root. Count the yearsOh! The years —You can only see themWhen they’re sliced in two.Cut down, dismembered,See what they’ve been through: The summers, the winters,The hunters, the gatherers,To them: time is celluloseAnd the sound of water coming close. I see you. Your bark couldn’t save you.What you built over the agesWouldn’t hold; […]
The Cow in the Room
People often avoid the elephant in the room, but it’s time we talk about the cow in the room. She is a ruminant, after all, and can no longer be ignored. Indeed, the room is getting increasingly crowded and stinky. Let’s ruminate together and use our cowmon sense, so we can replace ignorance and crisis with science and solutions. It’s […]
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 […]