The other day, while riding down an especially busy stretch of Missouri state highway (with no rideable shoulder, to boot), we asked ourselves whether more people think us brave or foolish for riding our bikes across the country. We didn’t know. Needless to say, we sometimes think of ourselves as both brave and foolish, often … Continue reading
The bike path has come alive again and so have we. Songbirds call from tree to tree and Bear Creek roars white, frothing up the sides of its banks. My wheels kick up the beeswax musk of crushed cottonwood buds. It is almost unbelievable, this sunshine, streaming unapologetically through vapor lingering in the air. The … Continue reading
In the beginning of July, I was a lucky participant at Fishtrap’s Outpost workshop, a week-long writing workshop that takes place on the Zumwalt Prairie, owned by the Nature Conservancy as North America’s largest native grassland. This little gem of waving grass and wildflowers, bear tracks, and coyote song is nestled in the notch of … Continue reading
Even in the barren retreat of winter, the forest reveals treasures just waiting to be found. You may also like: Belay Bryophytes Sprites Continue reading
I do this every year- retreat into winter. It seems as though the months of shorter days and longer nights becomes a dearth of creativity, as I focus more on cooking food and drinking tea on the couch than searching for poems out in the world. I seem to neglect this blog every winter. But … Continue reading
Beauty can both shout and whisper, and still it explains nothing. -Mary Oliver- It is mid-October and we are now Day Two into our three days rafting the Rogue. At this point, we are immersed. We spend a majority of our waking hours using the kinetic energy of water and the gravitational pull of the … Continue reading
The skin of the planet is fragile. Watch. Listen. You can only listen. By listening, you may see a sparrow warming itself in steam on the corner of your gutter. By listening, you may see the first crocus shimmy up from the frozen Earth. A sentry, the first scout. You may hear the fall of … Continue reading
Spider Weather by James Morrison These are the warm calm days before fall strips the trees and rain turns the ground slick the sky unpredictable, the days of yellowjackets and fruit flies that hover over the last wave of fallen apples and grapes. I’m spending time with the fat orange and brown spiders tying pitchfork … Continue reading
We found ourselves knee-deep in water, feeling for the solid caress of the boardwalk beneath our feet. Apparently, the heavy summer rains in Southeast Alaska during June and July had left the trails of Point Bridget State Park flooded and unrecognizable. I already felt my fingers shriveling into raisins and my toes starting to grow … Continue reading
Because I woke up today to the splatter of rain on asphalt… Because now, in the lived-in-mid-morning, sun hits the rain still lingering on leaves… Because I don’t want to restate what has already been said… I am sharing with you a post I wrote two years ago, “an ode to pluviosity.” …Because today the … Continue reading
in the midst 