many thanks to paddler press for giving a home to my self-evidently titled poem on the free organ concerts held at st. hedwig’s church here in the east village before covid hit, “on free east village organ concerts in september.”
you can read it here (on p 32), there’s audio of me reading it just below, and do have a read thru of the rest of the issue too!
milwaukee river and swamp sna is a mixed site with lowland forest, conifer swamp, and shrub zones. the east branch of the milwaukee river flows thru the site, and it hugs mauthe lake. the lake, river, and wetlands make the site a popular home and migration corridor for birds. we saw a song sparrow, common mergansers, buffle heads, a bald eagle, and downy woodpeckers, along with several more common species. my wife spotted the eagle standing on the lake ice a few hundred yards off and then it took off and flew right over us, as cranes called from further afield.
the walk thru the lowland hardwood forest was full of life, even at this early part of the year. so much to hear and smell and see and touch. we didn’t make it far enough to get to the swamp, but there’s always next time.
a.
common mergansers
with brilliant
red bills, just floating
b.
soft thumb of willow
wild array
song sparrow on branch
c.
bald eagle over
east branch’s
sand and gravel bed
d.
the geese will not stop
their honking—
the witch’s butter
the premier issue of magpie literary journal has gone live, and the editor saw fit to include one of my poems. this one is a conceit on having a daughter and is set on the shores of a wave-battered lake michigan. it also uses dripping pathos more than is my usual, but having children will do such things to a writer. 🙂
i know a few of the other folks who have poems appearing, and highly recommend reading thru the whole issue.
pax inter spinas
spring lake is an alkaline lake surrounded by fen and northern wet forest. the wdnr says the shoreline is a bog shelf and that plants characteristic of fens and bogs live together in the mats of vegetation surrounding, an odd combination.
we were game for it, and the area was inviting (especially with rubber boots). we were welcomed most prominently by two (then three) sandhill cranes making regular calls the whole time we were there, with the echoes of another pair somewhere beyond the tamaracks sounding in between.
the year’s first sighting of skunk cabbage!
a.
cranes stand on the ice
calling out—
here in the cattails
b.
a single oak leaf
under ice
cool breeze between trees
c.
over tamaracks,
skunk cabbage,
polypores: grey sun
spruce lake bog is classic bog territory. a (relatively) undisturbed bog lake in a kettle, very diverse flora more characteristic of northern sphagnum bogs, according to the wdnr’s description.
i was grateful for the boardwalk that allowed for a walk all the way thru the bog to the lake thru the sphagnum and the bog forest of tamaracks and black spruces and some hardwoods. a light rain was falling and just warm enough not to bundle up.
highlight for sure was the pitcher plants thick on the ground (first id). amazing.
a.
red floral fingers
in the rain
spiders in and out
b.
tumbling tangle
sprawled beneath
the bare tamaracks
veteran’s park is a parcel of land that used to be lake michigan, until landfill was put in. now we have nice museums and trails and marinas and whatnot.
the birds love it too, and so does the ice.
a.
a riprap morning
ice heaving
on milwaukee bay
b.
a beak silhouette
liquid dive
merganser on lake
c.
common goldeneyes
thrusting heads
paddling along
the cedarburg environmental study area is a rehabilitated parcel of 38 acres in ozaukee cty wisconsin. conifer forest, hardwood forest, a stream, ponds, and wetlands, the area was rehabbed by a local family from agricultural fields. amazing what a few decades and some devoted humans can do for the land and the many creatures who live here (seeing a good many even before spring really gets moving in wisconsin).
fungus and ice and pond bank life and many many trees.
a.
a single pine cone
held aloft
by shrubby fingers
b.
long cracks and hollows
crevices
the sheer edge of ice
c.
willow gnarled with growth
on bog ice
goose honks fill the air
d.
duckweed swarms the bank
as snailshells
bask in golden light
if you made it this far, here’s a sequence viewing some serious fungal work on a tree:
shannon preserve is 34 acres down the road from the cedarburg bog sna on hwy 33 in ozaukee cty. marsh, shrub carr, lowland hardwood forest, wet and upland meadows. no trails to speak of, which was nice. an unnamed stream meanders thru the site on its way to one of the lakes in cedarburg bog. its ice shelf was precarious and fun to admire.
we hung out with a white breasted nuthatch, and came out of the woods to meet two sandhill cranes flying across the meadow singing away—our first sandhill sighting of the year. it was our first hike outside the city in weeks, the first with warm sun in months. it was a good day.
a.
the curling moss fronds
reflecting
march’s late-day sun
b.
white breasted nuthatch
chirps over
marooned feather flumes
c.
sandhills—necks like waves—
skirt meadow
past wind-blasted oak
this 11-acre wood sits on uw-milwaukee’s campus and is being rehabilitated by the uwm field station. tucked right in there b/t campus and some housing, fenced in to keep out the riff-raff—you know, buckthorn and wild mustard et al.
it was a bitterly cold afternoon, but the sunlight and a small frozen rivulet afforded good fun for all. and we happened on a doodad-festooned tree that was a surprise.
the forest is sleeeeeping.
a.
golden rivulet
piercing eye
in the bitter cold
b.
a woodpecker’s knock
comes gently—
february air
c.
dense suffocation
under leaves
on winter’s still ground
very much on the coattails of this weekend’s publication, i’ve got two new poems out in the february issue of the journal better than starbucks.
a free verse meditation on fairy parental duties is here, while a prose-poem cri de coeur on a long-ago night in boulder, co is here.
there’s much to read throughout the issue, with a number of twitter-community folks on the formal poetry page whom i respect a great deal—check them out too if you can.
happy february!
Jacob Riyeff 