sna poems #72: rhine center bog

April 23, 2021 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

rhine center bog is a bog lake formed within a kettle, the depression left by a melting block of buried glacial ice. tamaracks to the south, a mesic hardwood forest on the uplands, and dense, boggy ground all about.

my trip was punctuated by light submersion in the peat (with appropriate footwear) and by the leavings of animal and bird corpses—the latter a poignant reminder of the aspect of nature walks we don’t often like to think about. and caution: a few pictures of the remains (not too graphic) appear after the final three-liner.

(note again: still on the excursion with the flip-phone, so photos aren’t all that clear.)

the bog exhales with each step

under marsh wren’s tone-spray,

here where piling tussocks reign

skunk cabbage

deer scat:

sphagnum perch

yellow birch conspired with moss,

offered an island for human bones—

no names for birds all around

fungus and tooth

would make quick work

if i fell and didn’t get up

sna poems #71: cedar grove hawk research station

April 22, 2021 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

positioned on a broad beach of glacial lake algonquin, cedar grove hawk research station is an active area for raptor migrations and has served as a banding and recording site for research for over 60 years. i learned that it has the longest running activity of banding and recording in north america, which is something.

there were a great many birds singing the day i visited, and while i’ll admit i couldn’t identify a number of them by their songs, i’ll also submit i simply didn’t care as i sat on the hillside in the morning air.

as this is a more sensitive site, i’m very grateful to the wisconsin dnr for permitting me to visit!

(note again: photo quality won’t be as high as normal here and in the next few posts, as i used the old flip-phone for this excursion. though in ways i like the lower res for this project sometimes; it seems to fit the immediacy and spontaneity i’m aiming for here. and i like to use old technology anyway—i still listen to audio cassettes and things like that…)

past sand pipers

over graves to this place

where the downed trees lie

i keep to the ridgeline

shore of a now-gone sea

grown thick and hoary with birdsong

thorns pierce on hillside

gathering damp toward the pines

warbling on above

sna poems, supplementum #20: amsterdam dunes preservation area

April 21, 2021 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

amsterdam dunes preservation area is a 328-acre preserve made up of lake michigan shoreline, rare sand dunes, forest, and wetland areas. somehow it avoided development. there’s also a little playground. direct access to dunes on lake michigan this far south in wisconsin is uncommon, so thanks to sheboygan county for tending this piece of land and opening it to the public!

(note: photo quality won’t be as high as normal here and in the next few posts, as i used the old flip-phone for this excursion. though in ways i like the lower res for this project sometimes; it seems to fit the immediacy and spontaneity i’m aiming for here. and i like to use old technology anyway—i still listen to audio cassettes and things like that…)

spine against dune

cormorants over waves

the sun shining now

thinnest ray of silver water—

field shifting slow downhill—

finds a linear tidal pool

New poem out in new journal _Bez & Co_

April 16, 2021 / jriyeff / 2 Comments

Yesterday, the second issue of the new journal Bez & Co appeared, and it included my “Sketch for Desert Fathers.” It’s a short lyric set at New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur, California and features Paul the Hermit, St. Guthlac of Crowland, and an unabashed Stellar’s Jay. I don’t generally make “joke” poems, but I suppose this is as close as I come!

You can read it here, or listen to it below.

sna poems, supplementum #19: cudahy woods

April 11, 2021 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

anyone who’s kept up here will know cudahy woods a bit already, but suffice to say: cudahy woods is a 40-acre parcel of land in milwaukee county that somehow escaped the axe and plow. it’s a beech-maple forest with an unnamed stream running thru, and airplanes skirting by nigh-constantly from mitchell int’l airport.

it’s also where i first started this project and started learning about spring ephemerals, so it has a special place in my heart. so this is kind of an “anniversary post,” and i already found two new flowers i hadn’t identified last spring!

purslane swell delicate

amid a sea of trout

the forest floor vibrant

springbeauty (purslane family)

trout lily sea

mayapple

glory of snow

trouts about to burst

monks’ stiff hoods in the muck

down from cowslip grove

chart stream bed’s shimmer

skunk cabbage

marsh marigold/cowslip

a stream with no name

sna poems #70: young prairie

April 6, 2021 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

young prairie is a sizable remnant wet-mesic prairie in the southern kettle moraine area, though it was pretty dry given our general lack of rain the last while in this part of wisconsin.

dthis early, there was little flashy growth to call our attention, but seeing the very beginnings of this year’s prairie grass was a subtle excitement. just the muffled crunch of last year’s vegetation and an open-air walk were enough to make the early trip worthwhile.

this trip also marked our last sna in walworth county!

the birds are building

over strawed thatch

green blades shoot

the cups of lichen children

will forage the strewn bark

living bare to the sun

sna poems #69: kettle moraine oak opening

April 5, 2021 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

kettle moraine oak opening is very much what it sounds like, though there’s plenty of oak woods too. another sna in the interlobate moraine area between two fingers of the last glaciation (the lake michigan lobe and green bay lobe), the rolling and tumbling topography between steep ridges and kettle holes is always a delight to meander thru. maintaining the oak opening and small prairies on the knobs takes some doing, and we visited (it looks like) a week or two after a prescribed burn. the smell was fertile.

saw our first round-lobed liverwort too—the hairs on the scape don’t come across in the photos, but they were thick with white hairs, and heavy-laden with pollen.

char and ash dust the ground

below a cardinal’s rapid song

the gravelly knob’s singed scent

belly-splayed

on bald bluff

sun basking

a great relief of land

mossed arms of oak

reach out over liverwort

sna poems, supplementum #18: 7 bridges trail in grant park

March 28, 2021 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

the seven bridges trail in grant park in south milwaukee winds thru woods and ravines leading down to a stone-strewn beach on lake michigan. the first spring ephemerals are showing their blooms now, though they weren’t open yet. a very wet and grey day, perfect for spring woods and water. new life!

bonus: i learned on this trip that “lannon stone” is a kind of dolomite limestone quarried from the 1830s in lannon, wisconsin in waukesha county (featured under the tiny succulents and moss in the photo above). i grew up around the block from “the lannon stone motel” in janesville, and my dad lived there for a bit when he first moved to wisconsin from new york. i had never even wondered what the motel’s name meant—familiarity breeds a lack of curiosity, i suppose. that little spot on racine st. in janesville feels richer in my mind today.

snowdrops rejoice in leaf-litter,

grey air damp and draping

the scape’s pendulous gift

lannon stone penthouse bulbs

showering bare soil

with scilla bells nodding

mallards happy as clams—mama just plunked down for a nap on her logperch. lake michigan in background.

sna poems, supplementum anthropocenum #7: three bridges park

March 16, 2021 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

three bridges park in milwaukee, wisconsin is a great little prairie on reclaimed land in what was once a wild rice marsh and then a rail-yard. it stretches 24 acres along the menomonee river, and is a welcome oasis in the city.

waves dry rattling

and unrelenting wind

the prairie starts to wake

frozen frog bodies

with webbed toes hang

down below the mallards

duck bill scours

and scuttles the seaweed

feathers floating

sna poems, supplementum #17: seminary woods

March 12, 2021 / jriyeff / 2 Comments

seminary woods, on the property of st. francis de sales seminary in st. francis, wisconsin (sometimes called “the salesianum”), is a relatively undisturbed 68-acre beech-maple mesic forest, with a cemetery and grotto beneath the canopy. it’s a last remnant of the kind of woods that used to line lake michigan, and some massive trees live here, especially beeches. there are a number of bottoms regularly filled with water, and deer stream runs thru-out before emptying into lake michigan. the spring ephemeral display is apparently very impressive, so i’ll be back again pretty soon. the deeper areas have a very distinct, close smell, especially in high summer.

i’m particularly interested in these woods as bernard durward—first professor of english at the seminary and one of wisconsin’s earliest poets, whose poems i’m currently editing with a colleague—must have walked here. the potawatomi deeded the land to franciscan sisters back in 1833, who sold it to the (arch)diocese of milwaukee for a seminary in 1855.

beech crown in crowded wood

oversees grotto and grave

winter passing into spring