Ray Zimmerman's Blog - Posts Tagged "nature"

Greetings

I am pleased to announce two events, two books and a new development.

I hope you are safe from our sudden outburst of forest fires (they made national news) and finding time to enjoy our lovely natural world (those parts which aren’t on fire). I have several projects in the works right now, and a brief synopsis of each follows.

My Favorite Poem, a Fifth Tuesday event featuring YOU
Star Line Books, Chattanooga, Tennessee
Tuesday, November 29
6 PM to 7 PM
No sign up; just come prepared to read.
https://www.facebook.com/events/21133...

Solstice Storytelling
Grace Episcopal Church
6 PM to 9 PM
Contact Ray Zimmerman or Diana Peterson if you would like to participate
https://www.facebook.com/events/63198...

Words on Sand
My new chapbook, Words on Sand, combines poetry with some of my best nature photography. I have wrapped up the revisions and hope to have it published soon.

Posters
After an invitation to participate in an art exhibit this past summer, I produced a poster of my poem, “Water,” and a larger poster of my photograph of a mountain stream at Cloudland Canyon State Park, They were displayed as companion pieces. I have now developed some small posters which combine one of my photographs and one of my poems on one page. These are ready to print. I have also produced my first post card size miniature which combines a photo of a Canada Goose with Goslings and a Haiku. I have approved the design, and these will be available in the next few weeks.

Nature is my Muse
My full length book of poetry is now completely assembled and in the editing stage. I expect it to be ready for publication by the end of the year.

Several years ago, I had a column in the Hellbender Press of Knoxville, Tennessee titled Nature's Bookshelf,. The first installment was a reiew of three books by nature authors, and the following installments were author profiles. Each profile included the author's story, and a sidebar with commentary on each of several published works. I am now republishing these on my blog. Here is a link to the latest one. Scroll down for more. http://www.rayzimmermanauthor.com/the...

Reading is inhaling; writing is exhaling. This is why I speak about reading in this blog.
Some comments on Wandering Through Winter by Edwin Way Teale:

On March 20, the Vernal Equinox, I set aside Edwin Way Teale’s book Wondering Through Winter, which I had been rereading and took up his now seasonally appropriate North with the Spring. I have now finished my first reading of that book and returned to finish Wandering Through Winter. These books are now out of print, but available from used book dealers, and I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my copy of Journey into Summer. I plan to read all four books in the series, The American Seasons this year.

The whale descriptions are indeed fabulous. I have never seen Gray Whales, having never traveled to the west coast, but they evoked a time when I saw three Right Whales off the coast of Cape Cod. Only 300 Right Whales remain, so that was 1% of the world-wide population. I also enjoyed several sightings of Humpbacks. I saw a stranding of a pod of Pilot Whales. Not so enjoyable.
More info on the Right Whale:
http://ocean.si.edu/north-atlantic-ri...

The Nuttall's Poor Will to which he refers in the chapter "Desert Wind" has apparently been renamed Common Poorwill: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/C...

I thoroughly enjoyed the chapter about Audubon's Salamander, set in Mill Grove Pennsylvania. What a delight to find such a creature in such a historical location.

The previous few chapters were great fun because they spoke of places I have visited. When my parents were still alive, I frequently drove to visit them near Cincinnati. I passed the Big Bone Lick State Park enough times that I finally visited it on my way. I returned more than once. One complete skeleton had been bronzed for some unknown reason. It is nevertheless, historically and prehistorically interesting.

I worked and lived in Peebles, Ohio for a short time years ago and visited the Serpent Mound effigy described in another chapter. The agency in charge had constructed a high steel tower which provided the only vantage point from which I could view the entire structure. The only place from which I could tell that the mound was indeed a serpent shaped.

I found myself wishing that they could have seen southern Ohio in spring when the Trillium grandiflorum covered the hillsides. I hope they have not all vanished with construction and development. It was as though dogwoods bloomed along the ground in a field of white flowers.

The trip east from Portsmouth on US highways 50 and 52 is a delightful drive through hills and valleys in a part of Ohio that is considered Appalachian. Spring floods continue to menace that land today.

The final chapters parallel the final chapters of North with the Spring. The trip which resulted in Wandering Through Winter began in Baja California and ended in New Brunswick, geographically close to the end of the trip which resulted in North with the Spring, beginning in Everglades and ending at Mount Washington.

Review
Kingsolver’s work is always well crafted, and generally recognizes the landscape as an actor in the drama rather than mere backdrop. Three intertwined stories within this narrative show a multitude cross connections which become apparent to the characters as the story unfolds.

Meanwhile, the Characters Deanna, Lusa, Garnett, and Nannie face uncertain futures in a changing Appalachian landscape. Families are losing their farms and wondering why they cannot survive on the land as their ancestors did for generations. People move away in droves to work in factories, a factor which began a few generations ago. The debate between pesticide and organic production rages between neighbors, and several are concerned about the disappearance of pollinators. The disappearing American chestnut and red wolf become points of interest, as does the coyote and its range expansion into eastern states. Farming and ranching interests and the attempt to eradicate the coyote are subjects of hot debate. Two characters are female scientists and the discussion of human pheromones is frequent.

Against this backdrop, the dynamic of male - female relationships plays out in unexpected ways. Like the landscape of Appalachia, and its changing population, the characters face an uncertain future, and find surprising sources of strength and grace.



View all my reviews

Under the Sea Wind by Rachel Carson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This was Rachel Carson's first book, published 20 years before Silent Spring. It is excellent nature writing, similar in style to Sally Carrighar and Vinson Brown. It did not do well when first released, but gained popularity with publication of her second book, The Sea Around Us which was phenomenally successful.



View all my reviews

Sunday, August 25, 3:30 to 5:30 PM
Location: Guild Trail (Chattanooga) stating at St. Elmo access point.
Route: I walked NNE on the trail until I crossed the long bridge near Ruby Falls and returned by the same route.

Weather: 88 degrees F and mostly cloudy
40% humidity with winds E at 2 mph
Barometer 30.1 and steady
Visibility 10 mi
Habitat: Second growth forest – appears to be well drained – somewhat rocky
Vegetation: Ferns and late summer perennials were plentiful along the trail. Further back, shrubs and understory trees give way to oaks and hickories.
Species List

Pileated Woodpecker calling but not seen
Ebony spleenwort
Ironweed - blooming
Kudzu – blooming
Wild Sunflowers – blooming
Jewelweed – blooming
Ragweed and giant ragweed – blooming
Poke – in fruit

General Comments: This trail gets extensive use, primarily hiking and mountain biking, with a trailhead and parking area on Ochs Highway near the intersection with Tennessee Avenue. Hikers also access the trail at the north end from the Ruby Falls parking lot.
A portion of the trail abuts my residence and I have made more extensive wildlife sightings from there, including, but not limited to White Tailed Deer, Gray Fox, Raccoon, Bald Eagle, and Opossum, with Screech, Great Horned, and Barred owls calling on occasion. Migrating Sand Hill Cranes have passed over spring and fall.
The Chattanooga Chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society holds bird walks here in the spring with extensive warbler sightings.

Sunrise
November 11, 2016

The morning sun gave light in brilliant bands of red, offset by cloud cover gray, the sort of brilliant sunrise once attributed to air pollution. The air still smelled of yesterday’s smoke, a thick haze of particles. I could smell the smoke in my apartment, in my workplace, and anywhere I went outside. I was frightened.

I had heard about how the fire at Gatlinburg had invaded the city and burned a thousand buildings, but that did not frighten me. Neither did the tales of all the timber burned at Cohutta wilderness in North Georgia.
Health alerts from local agencies warned those with heart disease, asthma, and other conditions aggravated by poor air quality to stay indoors, run air conditioning not at all.

I have heart disease, asthma, and other conditions aggravated by poor air quality. I was afraid I would breathe smoke until I gurgled my last breath through congested bronchial tubes, unlike the pleasant sensation as my exhalations once gurgled from the hose of a regulator as I observed shocking neon green and blue fish at coral reefs near the Florida Keys.

This dry October caped the hottest summer on record, with the driest October in 140 years, according to official figures. A man from California said that this is no drought, not like it is out west, with his state and several others dividing the water from the Colorado River. That river becomes a dry stream bed by the time it reaches the Sea of Cortez.

This year, our relative abundance of water is paltry. The parched leaves and twigs of forests became a tinder box prepared for any spark. The land may lose its hair at any turn.

Mountains blaze in Georgia and East Tennessee. Gatlinburg suffered the worst but is not alone. Campfires are strictly prohibited. Lightning struck at Cohutta Wilderness. The area remains closed until further notice. Fires rage on Fox Mountain and Signal Mountain, on Lookout Mountain, and at Cleveland, Tennessee.

More fires blaze in North Carolina.
Meanwhile, there is good news from out West. Conservation groups bought some water rights and left a little water in the Colorado. Water reached the Sea of Cortez and recharged marshes and estuaries.
Here in Tennessee, we hope for rain that the green earth may be restored.

Further reading:
We think of fire as a hazard to the natural world and to ourselves, but some natural areas depend on fire for their continued existence. In her book Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer address our relationship to nature. The chapter “Burning the Headland,” specifically addresses beneficial aspects of fire.

Question:
How do you feel when confronted with aspects of nature that are beyond our control?

Excerpt from my article on the works of Peter Matthiessen published in The Helbender Press
July/August 2006. I mentioned three new nonfiction works:

Perhaps the most significant of the three is End of the Earth: Voyages to Antarctica. In this gem Matthiessen describes two voyages to Antarctica, one departing from Tierra del Fuego, and the other from Tasmania. The book includes historical vignettes on polar exploration, whaling and sealing. He includes information on many polar explorers; Nansen, Amundsen, Shakleton, Ross, Scott, and others. He also describes first hand encounters with Antarctic wildlife and descriptions of research stations, wrecked ships, and abandoned outposts, especially the one at South Georgia Island.

He contrasts the luxury he and his fellow travelers experience on board the vessel Kapitan Khlebnikov with the hardships suffered by early explorers. End of the Earth is a complete book on the Antarctic. It includes extensive discussion of current and past threats to Antarctic wildlife and the environmental quality in the region.

Matthiessen’s voyages to Antarctica took place during the 1990’s. During that same decade, he was traveling world-wide with wildlife biologists and documenting their research on the several species of cranes found worldwide and researching the worldwide population of tigers. Two nonfiction books grew out of these travels, The Birds of Heaven, and Tigers in the Snow. Each is a delightful read and includes historical insights into human interactions with these creatures.

Matthiessen has been called America’s greatest Natural History writer in the literary tradition. I certainly place him among the best and hope that he will give us more insights into wild nature and exhortations to preserve the world’s wildlife and the landscape in which it lives.

Also published in the literary journal Number One, Gallatin, Tennessee, 2019 edition.

For the Last Carolina Parakeet

I imagine the loneliness of your aviary
there at the Cincinnati Zoo where your
predecessor, the last Passenger Pigeon,
flew off to oblivion just a few years earlier.
One voice is not a choir.

You were part of a social species,
descending by the thousands,
on fields to consume cockleburs,
or orchards for luscious fruits.
One voice is not a choir.

Some labelled you a pest
and pursued with shotguns.
Audubon noticed your species
in decline even in his bygone days.
One voice is not a choir.

No welcoming song of your fellows
greeted your waning days. Does your
skin adorn a museum, just as your
ancestors’ feathers adorned ladys’ hats?
On voice is not a choir.

It saddens me to think my adopted home
of Tennessee once knew the calls and colors
of a native parrot. One scientist titled
an article about your kin, “Forever Gone.”
No voices remain in the choir.

A note from my ongoing research on Robert Sparks Walker, Poet and Literary Naturalist.

1924 Walker, Robert Sparks, “The Tennessee State Flower,” Tennessee Historical Society. Tennessee Historical Magazine. Nashville, The Society, 1924. [Series I] V. 8. N. 2 P 146-147.
The Tennessee State Library and Archives
Knox County Library, Knoxville, TN

On October 13, 2019 the author examined and photocopied the article as found in a bound copy of the journal at the reading room of the Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee. Within the article, Walker described the state flower botanically as well as its symbolism.

At the time, the Passionflower was the state flower. It has since been replaced by the Iris but remains a symbol of Tennessee as the State Wildflower. Interestingly, Walker described the flower as a Christian symbol with parts of the flower standing for aspects of the Good Friday passion of the Christ. A list of the State Flowers of all states, as excerpted from the magazine Southern Fruit Grower, follows the article.