the Feathertop sways, as the river beside it glides inexorably
Feathertop [Haiku]
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Category Archives: nature
I’ve Never Been Lost in the Woods [Sonnet]
I've never been lost in the woods, though I've been lost so many times. I've been lost in my neighborhood, and I've been lost within my mind. You say the trees look all the same. I say that's some speciesist shit. No. I don't know the trees by name, but that doesn't matter a whit. I've never been lost in the woods: lost means wishing to be elsewhere. Lost is all about "woulds" and "coulds." But I'm not lost if I don't care: don't care I don't know this exact spot, 'cause I know precisely where I'm not!
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BOOK REVIEW: A Gardener’s Guide to Botany by Scott Zona
A Gardener’s Guide to Botany: The biology behind the plants you love, how they grow, and what they need by Scott ZonaMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
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Release Date: December 6, 2022
This beginner’s guide to botany is well conceived and executed. The photographs are beautiful and well-chosen to help the reader understand the complexities discussed in the text. The text gets definitionally dense in places, but also presents fascinating ideas in plain English. I learned a lot from the book, particularly where it was less steeped in technical terminology and details and offered intriguing ideas and examples.
While the book’s eight chapters aren’t formally divvied up, I would place them into three groups. Chapters one and two are about what plants are and how they are organized to do what they do. Chapters three through five are about what plants need to survive (water, light, and nutrients, respectively) and why. The last three chapters explore the main activities plants engage in (i.e. defense, reproduction, and seed dispersal.)
I found this book to be informative and readable, and if you’re looking for a basic guide to botany that skillfully employs photographs, I’d have a look at this one.
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Stampede [Free Verse]
Wildlife charges through the city like the bulls of Pamplona, a stampede of death from a river of life, a river that flows turbulently, crashing and slopping. Nothing can falter before the stampede. Each step must land solidly, each step until one's last.
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Whee!… Briefly [Haiku]
Nesting Birds [Haiku]
City Subdued [Haiku]
Where’d the Water Go? [Free Verse]
the lake is low. where'd the water go? i don't know... but you can bet squirrels aren't at fault.
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Painted Forest [Lyric]
The forest looks painted with dabs of bright color, a pointillist mural of the leaves' last hurrah. Soon, it'll turn twiggy, and sing desolation, and invite the fog in to soften sharp lines. Then one day you'll notice leaves glowing in sunlight. Their green will be golden from warm yellow rays. The maturing forest will darken its greenness, turning to sober tones that blot out the light.
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Relentless Rain [Sonnet]
It rains for days on end in this city. The people peer out under umbrellas. Nothing 's washed clean; it's soggy & gritty and brutal as a Kafka novella. The streets aren't light, but nor are they true dark. The light isn't absent, just sapped of vim. The gray that remains is like Fall in Denmark. Relentless rain is relentlessly grim. The gutters are glutted with murk and sludge. The rushing waters can't sweep it all clean. All work 's drudgery and all walks a trudge, and there's no sparkle in the pavement sheen. Do some "sing in the rain?" No, they just mock -- their umbrella flipped out and w/ sodden socks.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 