I took these photos while attending the Trails and Trilliums Naturalist Rally at Beersheba Springs. The story of this event appears on my Substack page: https://rayzimmerman.substack.com/p/my-heart-is-ful.
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Here are some new upcoming events. TELL IT on the MOUNTAIN Friday, April 5 Concessions open 4:30 STORYTELLING begins at 5:30 (http://www.waldensridgecivicleague.org) Come hear six renowned Storytellers. All the tales, proverbs, jokes, and verbal folklore will be family-friendly. Tellers will take turns in a round-robin program presented in a setting where the audience is close to the performers. This is the fourth year of the popular TELL IT on the MOUNTAIN program which is suitable for kids of all ages.. Come at 4:30 to see your neighbors and grab a hot dog or a big fat bratwurst with all the fixin’s. The s’mores fire-ring, the playground will be waiting for you. Storytelling begins at about 5:30, so your family will have time to visit and enjoy a meal beforehand. Tellers: Judy Baker Owen Duncan Deborah Holland Bruce Hopson Pete Vanderpool Ray Zimmerman We look forward to seeing you www.waldensridgecivicleague.org Walden's Ridge Civic League Auditorium 2501 Fairmount Pike, across from Wayside Presbyterian Click Here for Directions I will also participate i Poetry and Punchlines sponsored by Rhyme N Chat Event: Friday, April 12, 7 to 10 PM at Wanderlinger Brewery, 1208 King Street I will participate in Trails and Trilliums this year. https://www.trailsandtrilliums.org/ My presentation summarizes the literary works of Robert Sparks Walker, founder of the Chattanooga Audubon Society and namesake of the Robert Sparks Walker Lifetime Achievement Award presented yearly by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. The following poems were recently published. The title poem appeared in the 2023 edition of the Tennessee Voices anthology published by the Poetry Society of Tennessee.
Villanelle for the Didgeridoo We all should try the didgeridoo. With practice, I’m sure I could learn how to play. It would make me happy. How about you? With that honking noise, the birds all flew. The upstairs neighbors have moved away. We all should try the didgeridoo. Uninvited guests are suddenly few. Those who arrived have promised to pray. It would make me happy. How about you? New friends now say they love it for true. They sit and listen with never a fray. We all should try the didgeridoo. With time, my musical repertoire grew. I charmed a small dog, the neighborhood stray. It would make me happy. How about you? Broken, I quickly repaired it with glue. I’d love to say more, but I cannot stay. We all should try the didgeridoo. It would make me happy. How about you? The following poems previously appeared in the 2023 edition of the Mildred Haun Review. Hearth and Home My father banked a fire at night, so coal burned in a furnace for our warmth, but gas burned in my mother’s stove to cook our food. No wood fire heated or cooked within our home, but there was a time when hearth and home were one. We’ll keep the home fires burning was a pledge. To cook at the fireplace is a toil beyond our modern thinking, but there comes a time when I set out for the woods with my tent and pack. I build a fire and sit on logs where I cook my food in blue enamel pots and watch the stars if the night is clear. Come morning, I will blow upon the coals, revive the fire upon my woodland hearth and set the percolator on a grate above the flames. Advice in Time of Plague Do not Abandon all hope ye who enter here nor let the weight of current events crush your soul. Mourn what is lost, but not too long. Crush the hurdle of despair and the dark thoughts lurking there. Pitch a tent near cool mountain streams. Lay spoil to grim demeanor and resurrect hope. Revel in the comedy of a fence lizard's display. Delight in wild violets and trout lilies. Never forget, you are called to live. The Golden Hour Under the swirling cosmic dust, the land is covered by a tangle of branches. Light from overhead won’t reach the ground. But the hour comes when sun is going down and the angle of the light illuminates the forest outside my door. The autumn leaves catch fire and blaze. Translucent in red and gold they filter light as clouds take on the color of the sun. Lights come on in the town below. The highway dreams of holiday decorations and clouds turn dark against the nightmare sky. In his New Yorker essay, ”The Problem of Nature Writing,” which also appeared in the Spark Birds book from Orion Magazine, Jonathan Franzen stated, “Sometimes I consider it a failing, a mark of writerly competition, that I’d so much rather take private joy in birds, and in nature generally than read another person’s book about them.”
Franzen addresses the many reasons why nature books sit unread on bookshelves and articles languish between the covers of unopened magazines. He does not mention the scarcity of available time, which is a limiting factor for my own reading, and I am sure others share that experience. Nevertheless, Franzen addresses priorities, his implied question being, why read about nature when you can go see it directly? I answered that question today by traveling to Hiwassee Refuge near Birchwood, Tennessee to see the Sandhill Cranes. It was not my first trip this year and I will make one or two more before winter ends. Read the full text on my Substack publication. https://rayzimmerman.substack.com/p/the-problem-of-nature-writing-a-response I have included some reviews of Southern nature writings on my Substack publication, but there are a number of Tennesseeans and authors who have written about Tennessee that I have not included. I may not get to more than a passing knowledge of some of these persons, but I believ they all have made significant contributions to our states knowledge of the natural world, so I have posted them here as a formative document Perhaps one will catch the attention of a reader and spark you to do research of your own. If you think of someone I have missed, please feel free to mention their names in the comments section.
Many of the referenced works are available online. Edward Abbey (1987 – 1989) was born in Home, Pennsylvania, and lived most of his adult life in the desert southwest, where many of his works are set. He authored the text for Elliot Porter's photographic montage, Appalachian Wilderness: The Great Smoky Mountains. The text is substantial, as coffee table books go. The editors also devoted a significant portion of the text to William Bartram and his book, frequently referred to as Bartram's Travels. The publisher included some of Bartram's original line drawings as illustrations. I have read portions of a copy I obained from a used book dealer and found it delightful. https://www.abbeyweb.net/. Dr. Hal DeSelm (1926-2011) was a plant ecologist who recorded plants present at over 3,000 sites in the state. His papers are preserved at the University of Tennessee, and a discussion of them appeared in The Hellbender Press. https://hellbenderpress.org/item/5-preserving-points-in-time-the-hal-deselm-papers Wilma Dykeman (1920 – 2006) authored The French Broad for the American Rivers book series. A chapter titled "Who Killed the French Broad" brought the question of environmental issues to public attention years before Rachel Carson. An article about Dykeman appears in the Tennessee Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilma_Dykeman Albert F. Ganier (1883 – 1973) was trained as an engineer, but birdwatching was his hobby. He published several articles in scientific journals. His books included A Distribution List of the Birds of Tennessee, Water Birds of Reelfoot Lake, and The Wildlife Met by Tennessee's First Settlers. The Biodiversity Heritage Library https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/ includes archived papers. A collection of his photographs is available online. https://sos-tn-gov-files.tnsosfiles.com/forms/ALBERT_F_GANIER_PHOTOGRAPHIC_COLLECTION_1900-1955.pdf Dr. Augustin Gattinger (1825-1902) was a Physician and Botanist who immigrated from Germany. He served as the company physician at the copper mines in Copper Hill, Tennessee. He published a guide to medicinal plants of Tennessee and an annotated checklist of Tennessee Plants. The second volume includes "Philosophy of Botany," a review of scientific botany beginning with Aristotle. A brief biography appears on the website of the Tennessee Native Plant Society. https://www.tnps.org/hall-of-fame/ Dr. Thomas Hemmerly (1932 – 2006) was a Botany professor at MTSU. He authored several wildflower guides, including Appalachian Wildflowers, Ozark Wildflowers, and Wildflowers of the Mid-South. He was one of four contributors to the project Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley, and Southern Appalachians. https://mtsunews.com/wildflower-festival-recalls-hemmerly/. Dennis Horn was the senior author in the collaborative project, Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley, and Southern Appalachians. He is a member of the Tennessee Rare Plant Scientific Advisory Committee. https://www.tnps.org/hall-of-fame/ Mary Paten Priestly is an associate curator at the Sewanee Herbarium. She edits The Plant Press, the Herbarium’s newsletter. She authored Sewanee Wildflowers in Color and edited the most recent edition of Under the Sun in Sewanee. Her children’s books are widely available. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7393756.Mary_Patten_Priestley Mack Prichard (1939 – 2020) began his career with Tennessee State Parks while still in high school. He later served as State Archaeologist and later as State Naturalist with the Tennessee Department of Conservation and Environment. The Friends of South Cumberland State Park have developed a Mack Prichard Legacy Project with the online publication of Mack’s writing, video appearances, and photographs. https://www.mackprichard.com/. Dr. Else Quarterman (1910 – 2014) was a plant ecologist who mentored doctoral students at Vanderbilt University. She is credited with rediscovering the Tennessee Coneflower, which was thought to be extinct, and preserving the fragile Cedar Glades of central Tennessee. She was published in academic journals and has a biography in the Tennessee Native Plant Society Hall of Fame. https://www.tnps.org/hall-of-fame/. Scott Somershoe is an ornithologist with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and authored Birds of Tennessee: A New Annotated Checklist. His book includes information on the status, distribution, and abundance of 415 species reported in the state. Check out his book on Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25924280-birds-of-tennessee. Dr. Eugene B. Wofford served as Herbarium Director and Curator at the University of Tennessee. He published numerous papers and guides to plant identification and remains a Tennessee Rare Plant Committee member. He is included in the Tennessee Native Plant Society Hall of Fame. https://www.tnps.org/hall-of-fame/. Stephen Lyn Bales served as chief naturalist at the Ijams Nature Center in Knoxville and is a regular contriuter to The Hellbender Press. In his introduction to the book Ghost Birds, he stated that as he learned more about Jim Tanner and his research efforts to document the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, he became convinced that someone should write a book about Tanner. He had one book already, Natural histories, and said that writing a book is like putting socks on an octopus and that one does not wish to undertake the task again but write it he did. A list of his books with links and reviews appears on Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/972322.Stephen_Lyn_Bales?from_search=true&from_srp=true This collection of author’s names is likely incomplete, so please comment below if you notice any missing names. This is a chronological directory of recent posts on my substack account.
November 8, 2023, “ The River” includes the poem of the same title and the poem “Recipe for Love.” I also included an audio clip of each of the poems and a link to an older post I updated with an audio clip https://rayzimmerman.substack.com/p/the-river. November 6, 2023, “Times Geography,” includes text and a video clip of me reciting the poem. I also included the poem “Dream of the River,” and the poem “Coyoteland,” with an audio clip of me reading it. There is also a stunning monochrome photo of the waterfall at Cloudland Canyon State Park https://rayzimmerman.substack.com/p/times-geography. November 2, 2023, “The Wendigo’s Way” includes three poems, “The Wendigo’s Way,” “Full Speed Ahead,” and “Rock.” It also includes a video with part of the poem “The Wendigo’s Way,” and a spooky picture of me. https://rayzimmerman.substack.com/p/the-wendigos-way. October 31, 2023, “Happy Halloween” includes a video and three poems, “Moonbeam,” “Dance,” and “Reincarnation.” https://rayzimmerman.substack.com/p/happy-halloween. October 27, 2023, “The Birds of Heaven” includes a review of Peter Matthiessen’s book of the same title, and my photo of Sandhill Cranes at Hiwassee Refuge https://rayzimmerman.substack.com/p/the-birds-of-heaven-a-review. October 24, 2023, “Poems from the Avocet,” includes a photograph of a Mockingbird and four of my poems that were included in “The Weekly Avocet:” “Mockingbird,” “21st Century Inferno,” “Primal” and “Chicxulub Inferno” subtitled “Champy’s Story.” https://rayzimmerman.substack.com/p/poems-from-the-avocet. October 19, 2023, “More Form Poems,” includes “Nature’s Decorum,” a cascade poem, “Hellbender,” a Pantoum, “Sonnet III,” and “Sonnet II – Social Distancing,” https://rayzimmerman.substack.com/p/more-form-poems. October 18, 2023, “A Matter of Form” includes “Villanelle for the Didgeridoo,” “Vanishing Migrant,” a Pantoum, “Full Speed Ahead,” a poem in heroic couplets, and “Water,” a free verse poem https://rayzimmerman.substack.com/p/a-matter-of-form. October 14, 2023, “Address to Cranes,” is a personal essay celebrating cranes and my response to their presence https://rayzimmerman.substack.com/p/an-address-to-cranes. “Jeff Biggers, Spokesperson for Appalachia” is a literary essay about contemporary author, Jeff Biggers https://rayzimmerman.substack.com/p/jeff-biggers-spokesman-for-appalachia. October 6, 2023, “2020 Fall Writing Workshop,” is a program announcement for the Chattanooga Writers’ Guild. I am the current president: https://rayzimmerman.substack.com/p/2023-fall-writing-workshop. October 4, 2023, “Surprise Arrivals and Departures” is a chapter drawn from my Cape Cod Journal, the story of a year I spent on the Cape. It describes events from December 4, 1986 https://rayzimmerman.substack.com/p/surprise-arrivals-and-departures. September 28, 2023, “Port Authority,” is a performance piece I presented years ago https://rayzimmerman.substack.com/p/port-authority. September 26, 2023, “Bull Gator’s Lament” is also a performance piece written, performed and likely videotaped for YouTube by an audience member. https://rayzimmerman.substack.com/p/bull-gators-lament. September 22, 2024, “Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree” is a comment on a book by contemporary author, David George Haskell https://rayzimmerman.substack.com/p/thirteen-ways-to-smell-a-tree. September 19, 2023, “Walking the Labyrinth” is a poem written after a walking meditation https://rayzimmerman.substack.com/p/walking-the-labyrinth. September 14, 2023, “Writing the Natural World,” is a list of works I have enjoyed reading with brief comments on each https://rayzimmerman.substack.com/p/writing-the-natural-world. September 12, 2024, “Primal” includes four poems, “Primal,” “21st. Century Inferno,” “The Remnants flee the Asteroid,” and “Mockingbird” https://rayzimmerman.substack.com/p/primal. September 7, 2023, Postcard from Hiwassee Island is an essay written after observing the Sandhill Cranes at Hiwassee Refuge. September 5, 2023, Annual Chincoteague Pony Roundup is an article about the wild ponies of Assateague Island, originally published by Cappers of Topeka, Kansas. September 3, 2023, The Cabin on the Bluff is a short story that won an honorable mention in the Tennessee Mountain Writers’ 2023 contest. Fall Creek Falls, photographed by Ray Zimmerman. The waterfall figures prominently in my story, "The Tonic of Wilderness." The Woods Stretched for Miles
I recently discovered some anthologies devoted to Southern nature Writing. Several noteworthy authors appear in The Woods Stretched for Miles: New Nature Writing from the South, 1999, UGA Press. Editoes Jon Lane and Gerald Thurmond are talented authors but did not include any of their own works in this anthology. I may review this anthology someday, but the following comments are more of a summary. Rick Bass (Mississippi) is acknowledged as a master of short stories and has published several fiction and nonfiction books. His essay “Good Day at Black Creek,” set in Mississippi, is drawn from his collection of essays Wild to the Heart, published by Stackpole Books. It is the story of a backpacking trip in Black Creek Wilderness, an area proposed for protection as a designated wilderness area. Jan DeBlieu’s essay “Hurricane” is set in North Carolina and drawn from her book Hatteras Journal, which is recognized as essential reading for coastal conservationists. She has published additional books on the coastal Carolinas. Wendell Berry has been called the dean of Southern writers. His essay “The Making of a Marginal Farm” is set in Kentucky and included in Recollected Essays (1980). It has since been published in other anthologies. Eddy L. Harris contributed his essay “Vicksburg,” set in Mississippi. It also appeared as part of his book Mississippi Solo: A River Quest, in which he described his canoe trip down the length of the Mississippi River. Franklin Burroughs received the John Burroughs Medal for best nature writing for his book Confluence: Merrymeeting Bay. For this volume, he contributed” Lake Waccamaw to Freeland,” chapter two of his book The River Home, in which he describes a canoe trip on the Waccamaw River. The essay is set in the Carolinas. Christopher Camuto contributed the essay “Old Growth” from his book Another Country: Journeying Toward the Cherokee Mountains. It is set in North Carolina. With sensitivity to the landscape, he speaks about how to recognize the transition from forest to old-growth forest. He has written extensively about fly fishing and other sports. Other books include A Fly Fisherman’s Blue Ridge and Hunting from Home. Susan Cerulean contributed an essay, set in Florida, about field research on Swallow-tailed Kites. Her books include I Have Been Assigned the Single Bird: a Daughter’s Memoir and Tracking Desire: A Journey After Swallow-tailed Kites. She edited The Book of the Everglades and Between Two Rivers. Stephen Harrigan contributed “The Soul of the Treaty Oak,” an essay investigating the killing of a famous live oak with herbicide. Several twists and turns of the story reveal unique aspects of the culture of Austin, Texas. He authored Big Wonderful Thing: A History of Texas. James Kilgo was a long-time professor at the University of Georgia. His essay “Actual Field Conditions” describes the difficulties of bird research in the field and is excerpted from his book Deep Enough or Ivorybills. He published several other books. Janet Lembke contributed the essay “River Time,” which first appeared as part of her book by the same title, set in North Carolina. Barry Lopez contributed the essay “Theft: A Memoir,” set in Georgia and first appeared in his book About this Life. He is the author of numerous fiction and nonfiction books. Harry Middleton authored the essay “Bagpipes on Hazel Creek,” in which he described Hazel Creek’s value as a trout fishing stream and the appearance of a mysterious piper in the surrounding wilderness. The essay is set in North Carolina and includes a description of Horace Kephart and his efforts to preserve the Great Smoky Mountains and Blue Ridge. Middleton died in 1993 after publishing In That Sweet Country, and The Earth is Enough. Janisse Ray is a resident of Georgia and an advocate for the Longleaf Pine Forest, the community of plants and animals it supports, and the Altamaha watershed. Her essay “Whither Thou Goest” is a look at her time in Montana, where she completed an MFA degree. She has authored a dozen books and is perhaps best known for Ecology of a Cracker Childhood and Wild Card Quilt. Bland Simpson contributed the essay “The Great Dismal,” the final chapter of his book, The Great Dismal: A Carolinian’s Swamp Memoir. Mary Q. Steele’s essay “The Living Year” is set in Tennessee. It is an excerpt from her book, The Living Year. She wrote natural history and children’s literature. In my Substack post, Writing Chattanooga: Southern by Nature, I comment on this book. Archie Carr was a herpetologist and noted expert on marine turtles. His essay “Living with an Alligator” is an excerpt from his book of collected essays, A Naturalist in Florida: A Celebration of Eden. Marilou Awiakta (Tennessee) is a nature writer of Cherokee and Appalachian heritage. She recently decided that the University of Tennessee library would be the home of her collected papers. Her essay “Daydreaming Primal Space” is an exposition on Native American thought as published in her book, Selu: Seeking the Corn Mother’s Wisdom, which I reviewed in my Substack post, Marilou Awiatka Speaks or a Living Culture. This item is crossposted from my Substack Account.
I reviewed three books for the print edition of The Hellbender Press, Volume 7, Issue 7, November/December 2005. I mailed copies to the books’ authors via their publishers and received kind replies. The essays became the first installment of my column, “Nature’s Bookshelf. Lamentably, the parent company folded The Hellbender Press, print edition, in 2008, bringing a close to my column. With Thomas Fraser’s return as Editor in 2020, the parent company initiated an electronic version with a vigorous publication schedule. Fraser has published several of my articles in the electronic version. This is a slightly different version of one review with an afterword, including a link to an online biography and comments on selected publications. Vintage Lopez by Barry Lopez "What being a naturalist has come to mean to me, sitting my mornings and evenings by the river, hearing the clack of herons through the creak of swallows over the screams of osprey under the purl of fox sparrows, so far removed from White and Darwin and Leopold and even Carson is this: Pay attention to the mystery. Apprentice to the best apprentices. Rediscover in nature your biology. Write and speak with an appreciation for all you have been gifted. Recognize that a politics with no biology, or a politics with no field biology, or a political platform in which human biological requirements form but one plank, is a vision of the gates of Hell." This final paragraph of "The Naturalist," an essay originally published in Orion magazine, sums up the writings of Barry Lopez. It finalizes one of the many works reprinted in Vintage Lopez, a literary retrospective including chapters and excerpts from several previous books. Many of the books are collections of works previously published in periodicals. "The Naturalist" is the only one of these works not previously published in a book. Lamentably, Vintage Lopez does not include any material from Of Wolves and Men, the nonfiction book that brought this notable author to my attention. That book popularized Barry Lopez as a writer and laid the groundwork for the quick acceptance of his later writing. He recounted what he learned, accompanying wolf researchers on expeditions in the field. Vintage Lopez includes the opening chapter from Arctic Dreams, the 1986 National Book Award winner, and other honors. He published Arctic Dreams after traveling with scientists in Alaska and Northern Canada. It summarized their field studies of the native peoples of those lands but also included comments on the natural world in the far north. Vintage Lopez is the fifteenth book authored by Lopez. It is an excellent place to start for those just exploring his works. Afterword Barry Lopez died on Christmas Day, 2020, after publishing Horizon, a long nonfiction work that summed up his travels and his purpose in writing. I have a copy of Horizon but have yet to read it. It is daunting in length, but I also read knowing there will be no more works by one of my favorite authors. His website includes a biography and links to some final essays as they appeared in magazines. More works by Barry Lopez In his book of essays, Crossing Open Ground, he encourages readers to rediscover their sense of wonder. In one of them, he searches for a prehistoric stone image of a horse, which he calls an intaglio. About this Life is a book of essays. My favorite is “Learning to See,” which was included in Vintage Lopez. River Notes: Reflections in the Eye of a Raven/Desert Notes: The Dance of Herons includes two short fiction books previously published separately. Although I think of Lopez as a nonfiction writer, his works of fiction are excellent. He published several others. Crow and Weasel is an illustrated story about two young men who decide to travel further north than anyone has gone before. They meet people previously unknown to their village and return with stories. It fits Joseph Campbell’s archetype called the hero’s journey. Lopez published several articles and essays in Orion Magazine. A search of their website will yield a list. |
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