Featured Poet… The Road North — A Spring Haibun by Featured Poet Chris La Tray 9 Jun 20218 Jun 2021 Highway 93 north, Missoula to Ronan, in the early days of spring. *** traveling north a lovely name on my lips ch-paa-qn in clouds A favorite story on this route…
Nature Burlapped Bushes 25 Apr 2021 Shaking snow from bamboo leaves, relieving arcing necks wet weight, is task enough with fat flakes plummeting I consider jangling our bushes less blanketed than buried. Then re-consider, considering my…
Featured Poet… Featured Poet Chris LaTray – Comet 11 Apr 202110 Apr 2021 Chris La Tray is a Métis writer and storyteller. His first book, One-Sentence Journal: Short Poems and Essays From the World At Large (2018, Riverfeet Press) won the 2018 Montana…
Nature Upcoming Submission Opportunity 18 Mar 2021 Hibernation: Taking time to rest and recharge during times of scarcity and challenge. Why do many animals hibernate in the winter? Winter can be a time of scarce food and…
Chapbook Contest 2020 Poetry for Nature Lovers 12 Feb 2021 Tiny Seed Press Chapbook Winner: Tabitha van der Lee This Beauty Has No Language by Tabitha van der Lee published by Tiny Seed Press is now available. 10% of the…
Lessons from the Wild… Hummingbirds 14 Jan 202114 Jan 2021 The hummingbirds arrived in our backyard again this summer, stopping to refuel on their long flight south. We watched as they helicoptered around the feeders, hovering as if frozen in…
Lessons from the Wild… Abracadabra 14 Jan 20211 Jan 2021 I stepped on a red mulberry leaf. “Ta-da” it’d crunched. We understood the alchemy of outside then, when we were kids. I enjoy outside now but have never been an…
Lessons from the Wild… Lessons from a Rock 13 Jan 202113 Jan 2021 I had a certain kinship with nature at a young age, growing up on an old farm with thirty five acres of fields and woodland. Climbing fallen trees and the…
Lessons from the Wild… My sister kept her garden 12 Jan 20211 Jan 2021 a careful patch with squash and beans, some other stuff we grew, growing up, a handful of blueberry shrubs nurtured against a wall for those days we piled into late…
Lessons from the Wild… People Still Get Polio 11 Jan 202111 Jan 2021 I discover a skinny desert path on my first morning walk in the Arizona neighborhood. The trail’s opening looks menacing in that brutal desert way, but further up the hill…
Lessons from the Wild… Pretty Little Darlings 11 Jan 20218 Jan 2021 Little darling greeted me in the back yard, slender face, dark eyes, coal black hair. Seemed interested to meet me, walked forward without hesitation. I froze, unable to speak,…
Nature How to Start a Movement, According to Crows 10 Jan 202110 Jan 2021 I hear them before I see them. By the tone, the meeting is important. I see flutters of wings, like black leaves, not falling but rising, from tree to tree,…
Lessons from the Wild… Once in a Lifetime 9 Jan 20218 Jan 2021 Marine biologists said it would only happen once, a phenomenon, swarming of bait fish off Cape Cuvier along distant Western Australian coast. A desolate, rocky place, few got to observe…
Lessons from the Wild… Three Answers to Any Dilemma 9 Jan 20218 Jan 2021 I. The Thunderstorm After sudden rain water rests as the puddle gathers blossoms. II. The Northern Blizzard While the howl covers a continent meek…
Lessons from the Wild… Hold Gently the Things That You Love 8 Jan 20218 Jan 2021 Photo by Carolyn Adams Carolyn Adams’ poetry and art have been published in the pages, and on the covers of Wend Poetry Journal, Steam Ticket, Apercus Quarterly, Calyx, and…
Nature Diver Tells How Shark Bit His Head 8 Jan 20211 Jan 2021 Summary of a S.F. Chronicle article by George Snyder, Chronicle North Bay Bureau Diver Tells How Shark Bit His Head Only minor wounds in attack at beach on Sonoma Coast…
Lessons from the Wild… River 7 Jan 20217 Jan 2021 I thought about you today A maelstrom of lonely Stirred beneath my bones And I remembered that most Of my life was lived near the river So maybe the river…
Lessons from the Wild… Stone Ponds Way Trail 7 Jan 20211 Jan 2021 In the ice kingdom above Upper Lena Lake, my son and I are the only moving shapes. We follow an indistinct path and trade leads, because the practice of drafting…
Lessons from the Wild… A Lament for Blackthorn Blossom 6 Jan 20218 Jan 2021 Only last week, its froth framed this Welsh lane with a wedding arch, a pair of willow warbler, the happy couple. Meanwhile the virus was in hideous rise, morgues…
Lessons from the Wild… Moonlight Whispers 6 Jan 20216 Jan 2021 Moonlight, silver, streams through trees between clouds and night wind. Spring Peepers chirping, cicadas singing over grass rustling, waving, waving under wind. These frame, define, infuse meaning into life: my…
Lessons from the Wild… Wildness Provides 5 Jan 20211 Jan 2021 Wildness provides transcendental wisdom Seeping from nature’s system Enlightenment to listening youth Hidden, yet self-evident truth Warm breezy pineywood sages Sparrow with lessons for the ages Sings of seeds and…
Lessons from the Wild… A Mountain Mulls 4 Jan 20214 Jan 2021 I am a mountain, Like my peers, Big and strong Tall and long, I may be an Abode of spirits Or a pile of ore, A resting site For ancestors.…
Lessons from the Wild… Anxious Autumn Leaves 4 Jan 202127 Dec 2020 Anxious autumn leaves- Wind through trees Blowing howling Shrieking tearing Violently ripped From their branches. Spinning wildly Soaring spiraling Up and around Until until until Falling Falling Falling…
Lessons from the Wild… Corvus corax 3 Jan 20211 Jan 2021 A raven coasts over the hill, over the late-autumn maples all amber, umber and ocher. He grasps the top-most branch of a white pine and looses guttural croaks that carry…
Lessons from the Wild… The Unraveling 2 Jan 202127 Dec 2020 Kingfisher was putting on a show. Circling overhead as I soaked my parched skin in the rocky pool, fed by the hidden spring. They landed on a branch near…
Lessons from the Wild… I find myself 2 Jan 20212 Jan 2021 By Josephine LoRe Josephine LoRe is a first-generation Canadian who has survived covid mainly through the gift of zoom, which has transformed her computer screen into a portal opening onto…
Lessons from the Wild… Revisiting a Sanctuary for a Child Who Found Her Freedom 1 Jan 202127 Dec 2020 Poem by Joni Caggiano Joni's blog is the-inner-child, where she has published poetry, photography, and short stories. Take a look at Joni's work in Spillwords Press NYC (where she…