virile russula caps
cluster the forest floor
thick smell of fungal bodies




Mushrooms and other fungal bodies are out in droves; reminds me of earlier days. Fungi are amazing. Full stop.
virile russula caps
cluster the forest floor
thick smell of fungal bodies




Mushrooms and other fungal bodies are out in droves; reminds me of earlier days. Fungi are amazing. Full stop.
a.
gold leaves
grey skies
from fullness only fullness

b.
moraine rocks circle oak-trunk
a petrine crown by moss-road
the prairie a fragile stability


c.
glacier’s gravel underfoot
earth bristles with leaf and stem
a whole universe of grass



d.
rough blazing star
a shard on hillside
aspens grove the ridge


a.
stinkhorns, you’ve taken
all we’ve thrown your way
disturbance a way of life

b.
primrose blankets the broken ground
wort-wisdom making virtue
geese along the evening’s river


this new supplemental subgrouping of sna poems, the “supplementum anthropocenum” will showcase occasional moments of exceptional, natural rupture in the urban and other built environments.
in one of my seminars this term, my students and i are talking about how ‘nature’ isn’t ‘out there.’ (and the troubles that arise from the view that it is.) thought i should start taking it seriously in this series too.
here, a patch of stinkhorns continues to work down the wood chips in a median strip heading into downtown milwaukee (it fruits a few times a year), while a vigorous stand of evening primrose beautifies an abandoned lot on the city’s lower east side. how is this not ‘nature’?
a.
elms tower the swale
and feathered honey understory
stop listen see



.
b.
thick-cut rivers of bark
spleenworts humbling below
root yourself in the made



.
c.
zygomorphic spikes
of great blue lobelia
crowding our hasty retreat


.
sanders park state natural area is set within a park and ringed ’round by exculpating road(!). two different kinds of forest grow on swells and swale, an ancient terrace of lake michigan. an intermittent stream flows thru the whole; lots of wildflower and fern species.
thanks to racine county parks for keeping this patch of earth.
a.
waxwings hop the grapevines
a whole shrubby world
purple on gold on green

b.
the winds ebb and flow
the stemsea. passing cranes
heard but unseen in the grasses

kettle moraine low prairie state natural area is a wet and wet-mesic prairie in the scuppernong basin, supporting a number of rare plant species.
a.
we are unassuming
as the wildflowers
walls of rain to the west


b.
grasses weave the soil
and layers dazzle the eye
bees doing bee work

scuppernong prairie sna is a wet-mesic prairie with open-grown bur oaks located in the kettle moraine state forest.
unintentional sacrilege
and yellow edges speak
white snakeroot under gray skies

brilliant stand of woodland sunflower

unassuming white snakeroot
spotted touchmenots fade
and mayapple rots as it stands
looking for the Faraway

spotted touch-me-nots fading
mayapple decomposing as it stands
waves crash, children sing
as the world seems to be burning
golden torches in the wood

goldenrod in the understory

michigami
jewelweed nods agreement
as Turtle marches on
clear sky thru oak leaves

jewelweed

turtle effigy mound facing south

trail to turtle creek

turtle creek

our welcome sign
Thanks to the City of Beloit for maintaining this area and preserving this effigy mound (and the smaller mound to the east).