Author\u2019s note:<\/p>\n
When San Mateo County, CA shut down in March 2020, I found myself with hours of \u201cnew\u201d time on my hands. No carpooling! No commuting! I got right into the practice of getting to my writing desk first thing, spending time with a favorite book:\u00a0Discovering Wild Plants: Alaska, Western Canada, The Pacific Northwest<\/em>\u00a0by Janice Schofield. I loved the process of going through the pages slowly, thinking, saying the words out loud, remembering. I don\u2019t know why I hadn\u2019t realized this before, but the book belonged to my late husband Nick, who died in a cycling accident in 2016. It\u2019s filled with his notes and highlights, those moments that were important to him as an undergraduate student in Environmental Science at Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka, Alaska. So, my time with the book became my time with him and with my grief. The series of 17-line poems came quickly. Thank you for reading this collection of six of them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n the fresh, cleaned fish, rabbit, or duck<\/p>\n and under my feet green ice, the ice<\/p>\n holding its own array of paper birch seeds<\/p>\n and they are like stars in their shapes and<\/p>\n in their assorted romantic arrangements and<\/p>\n they are: lady birch, gray birch, Kenai birch<\/p>\n under the soles of my feet of my bootprint<\/p>\n the fresh, cleaned fish, rabbit, or duck<\/p>\n whose habitat varies from the bogs and tundra<\/p>\n to the lowlands and subalpine meadows, whose<\/p>\n jawbones gleamed in the rushes, the palms<\/p>\n of my hands, the extremities where the pelt<\/p>\n and the sinew, the woodstove and snowshoe,<\/p>\n and they are like pools shining or holding<\/p>\n the white sky before us and they are like<\/p>\n my skin, the very cells, the marrow and helix,<\/p>\n the fresh, cleaned fish, rabbit, or duck<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n the sun-dried or fresh sea vegetable, steeped as tea<\/p>\n and a gold bell you gave me, the shape of steam<\/p>\n drawn over the window, hemlock, syndrome<\/p>\n and experiment, where you placed the crown<\/p>\n and the jewel thorn and bracken fern, you<\/p>\n arranged in the doorway the membrane and<\/p>\n you are: husband, thimble, father, marine summer<\/p>\n at the back of the skull, that which empties itself<\/p>\n of the sun-dried or fresh sea vegetable, steeped<\/p>\n as tea, as the number of heartbeats or allotted<\/p>\n breaths, hairs of the head, sparrows of the field,<\/p>\n paths along the river, estuary, all night breathing<\/p>\n next to me warm and mammalian, industrious,<\/p>\n bladderwrack of ancient origin, salt smell, a fleck<\/p>\n of metal, chain link, conveyor belt, backbone, copper<\/p>\n pipe and my arms full of branches and nomenclature<\/p>\n the sun-dried or fresh sea vegetable, steeped as tea<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n blend with other tonic herbs (such as dandelion root<\/p>\n and flower spikes, colored, pinnately compound,<\/p>\n the styptic qualities of the plant\u2019s leaves,\u00a0sanguisorba,<\/em><\/p>\n and a photograph, a hospital bed, a blue flame after<\/p>\n the float plane docks, oxygen, my hand at the throat,<\/p>\n as if the land had pinched it, windpipe, there were starfish<\/p>\n and they were six-legged, rough-skinned, reddish in color,<\/p>\n over-easy, if you stood at the bedside if the newborn<\/p>\n blend with other tonic herbs (such as dandelion root<\/p>\n and a couple of emergency vehicles, to stem the flow,<\/p>\n to dam, what other objects filled the torso, the limb<\/p>\n torn, if I bit you, if a soft cape of petals gathered,<\/p>\n a little gasp, a thistle, and you rising, and a housefinch<\/p>\n at the glass, tapping, and someone stopped the very<\/p>\n arrival, the quickening spirit, as if it never existed as<\/p>\n if we hadn\u2019t spent ourselves like that in this earth<\/p>\n blend with other tonic herbs (such as dandelion root<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n flowers were often mixed with buckbean, eyebright,<\/p>\n chamomile, lavender, a few words of elucidation<\/p>\n regarding the masterpiece, the ancient pipe, the felty<\/p>\n undersides of the leaves and I stood listening, sliced<\/p>\n my own wrist inhaled the cooling smoke and a world<\/p>\n appeared, the essentials, that which strikes and enlightens,<\/p>\n wholehearted, where even the most extraordinary<\/p>\n strength will hardly be sufficient, be alive in the tundra,<\/p>\n in the coniferous woods, the ladies of quality, these<\/p>\n roots that taketh away all spots and blemishes, whose<\/p>\n flowers were often mixed with buckbean, eyebright,<\/p>\n primrose, harebell, and the people revered them<\/p>\n and called them Saint, and after a time the incessant<\/p>\n workings of the mind turn visible, turn concrete in<\/p>\n this the hour of lead or of fair trade, of black sugar<\/p>\n or the coming twilight, heliotrope, wild rose, tobacco<\/p>\n flowers were often mixed with buckbean, eyebright<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n people weave the spring bark to make strong<\/p>\n string, from sorrow and mourning (weeping<\/p>\n willow) to the hearts of oak and breast, eye<\/p>\n and ovary and red wheelbarrow, clavicle,<\/p>\n portent of spring, a slip of paper, anthracite<\/p>\n burning with a little flame or smoke, and there<\/p>\n was the shape of the bud against the eyelid,<\/p>\n silver fur, silk and how do you see yourself in<\/p>\n all this? American linden, jackdaw, purloined<\/p>\n key, steel-blue and purplish, privileged, at dawn<\/p>\n people weave the spring bark to make strong<\/p>\n shapes out of the darkness, out of the fish skin<\/p>\n or the diamond ring or leisure gallery, galaxy<\/p>\n cornice or drumlin, loom, the spindle drift<\/p>\n the treaty the textile the hand against the lip<\/p>\n or was it a finger a scissor a doll a blue fawn<\/p>\n people weave the spring bark to make strong<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n based on the Doctrine of Signatures, a European<\/p>\n method popular in the 1600s, associated the healing<\/p>\n powers with resemblance to human anatomy, human<\/p>\n growth according to its benefits, its rituals or nine bark,<\/p>\n streambed, riverbank, chosen landscape, women\u2019s<\/p>\n work, nursery catalogue, tea rose, picket fence,<\/p>\n copper kettle, a cotton cloth embroidered with blue<\/p>\n flax flowers, a pot holder, a bruise there if you would<\/p>\n just, in the driveway, and what I meant to say was<\/p>\n based on the Doctrine of Signatures, a European<\/p>\n bushel of timothy, the moment by which you judge<\/p>\n the other pain by, the pinprick of light at the eye\u2019s edge<\/p>\n and this for your own good the snap crackle cobweb<\/p>\n the mothwing caught and he\u2019s so sorry and say this<\/p>\n then, buckle up,\u00a0it happens,<\/em>\u00a0the raised hand the nosegay<\/p>\n the rivermouth repeating, pearly everlasting, an Eden<\/p>\n based on the Doctrine of Signatures, a European<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Caroline Goodwin moved to California from Sitka, Alaska in 1999 to attend Stanford as a Wallace Stegner Fellow in poetry. Her books are\u00a0Trapline\u00a0<\/em>(JackLeg Press, 2013),\u00a0Peregrine\u00a0<\/em>(Finishing Line Press, 2015),\u00a0The Paper Tree\u00a0<\/em>(Big Yes Press, 2017) andCustody of the Eyes\u00a0<\/em>(dancing girl press, 2019). Her chapbook\u00a0Text Me, Ishmael\u00a0<\/em>was published as Steven Hitchins\u2019 Literary Pocketbook Series #2 in 2012. She lives and teaches in the San Francisco Bay Area.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Author\u2019s note: When San Mateo County, CA shut down in March 2020, I found myself with hours of \u201cnew\u201d time on my hands. No carpooling! No commuting! I got right into the practice of getting to my writing desk first thing, spending time with a favorite book:\u00a0Discovering Wild Plants: Alaska, Western Canada, The Pacific Northwest\u00a0by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[56,12],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Unknown.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42xiC-1y3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5955"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5955"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6063,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5955\/revisions\/6063"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}17\u00a0Vaccinium ovalifolium\u00a0<\/em>Whortleberry 01-22-20 0900 PDT<\/h5>\n
2,460\u00a0Fucus spiralis\u00a0<\/em>Bladderwrack 02-22-20 0647 PDT<\/h5>\n
14,613\u00a0Sanguisorba sitchensis\u00a0<\/em>Sitka Great Burnet 3-22-20 0830 PDT<\/h5>\n
180,064\u00a0Tussilago saggitatus\u00a0<\/em>Son Before Father 04-22-20 0847 PDT<\/h5>\n
335,729\u00a0Salix alaxensis\u00a0<\/em>Pussy Willow 05-22-20 0748 PDT<\/h5>\n
471,680\u00a0Cardamine umbellata\u00a0<\/em>Lady\u2019s Smock 06-22-20 0941 PDT<\/h5>\n