ON Inauguration Day, I woke up to a poem in my head. I don’t normally compose much poetry, certainly not before coffee. So I wrote a draft of the poem in my notebook and proceeded with plans to walk into the forest here in Vermont before Donald J. Trump was sworn into office.
In this preview episode of the new Chasing Nature Podcast, I recite my poem from beside an iced-over brook in snowy woods. But first I give you a head start on the podcast, which launches next week with an episode about Monarch butterflies.
As I point out in the preview, the podcast will be infrequent and modest at first (a “modcast”). My written essays will continue to be bedrock here at Chasing Nature. But let us explore some of the wild audioscape together.
If you’d rather skip the audio (I hope you don’t because you’ll miss out on context for the poem and for the podcast) here’s the unvarnished poem, which in the episode I set up and read aloud at noon as President Trump takes the oath of office.
Oath of Forest
When carnage returns a contagion take leave of heartless men, their lies depravities. Turn from fear to woods the kinglet’s crown in angled winter light golden resolute. Today at noon in the grace of spruce and feather grieve gather strength.
Finally, inspiration for the Chasing Nature Podcast comes from my friend Erica Heilman, whose podcast Rumble Strip explores, with honesty and intelligence, the most beautiful and impactful thing on Earth — us. I cry sometimes when I listen to Erica’s conversations. Good cries, painful cries, hopeful cries — basically cries about what it means to be alive. And when I laugh, it’s usually one of those chuckles that comes with recognition that, yeah, Erica gets it — she gets us, she knows us, the best and the worst of us, often better than we know ourselves. (Don’t believe me? Read of Rumble Strip’s lofty awards.) And I promise that I’m not writing all this about Erica because she produced an episode about the two of us birdwatching one morning (during which I admitted that I wouldn’t mind dying in a bog).
The Golden-crowned Kinglet pictured above was photographed by
, who writes on Substack. David embodies, like few others, the potent blend of the written word, good ideas, and ravishing photography. At the very least, behold his Mountain Bluebirds.Theme music is courtesy of the amazing D. Davis and the Faerie Godbrothers (more on them to come).
Optional Reading for Next Week’s Monarch Podcast
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