This Juneteenth, we’re thinking about words. We know how much power even one small word has. No one understands that better than a poet.
A few years ago, we hosted a wonderful event in which five poets read works they had written in response to paintings by artist David Driskell.
One of those poets, Samaa Abdurraqib, has just edited an anthology of poetry called From Root to Seed (now available from NatureCulture) that “lifts up the poetic voices of Black, Brown, and Indigenous writers who have deep historical and current connections to the land, places, and the natural world of the Northeastern region of the United States.”
Abdurraqib (who is also a birder) writes in the preface, “When you think about the land and the ecosystem of the Northeastern region of the United States, what do you imagine? You likely envision the rolling hills and mountains of the places we now call New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. You might imagine coastlines – both rocky cliffs and sandy beaches. Perhaps you visualize wide open spaces in the north and densely congested spaces in the south and west of the region. And when you think of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people in the region, where do you place us? Are we in those wide open spaces? Are we engaging with the natural world or are we set apart and isolated from it? Dear reader, I need to tell you: we are everywhere. And we are in relationship with the land and with nature wherever we are.”
The collection features 25 contemporary poets including Mikhu Paul (“A Snail Primer”) and Myronn Hardy (“Hawk with Crow”). More info here >
We’re working on our own project with NatureCulture and wanted to give you a preview of what’s to come. Writing the Land is a NatureCulture project that links land trusts and sanctuaries to poets.
Here’s the mission:
Writing the Land is an attempt to honor nature and our relationship with it in a way that is as equitable and transparent as it is deep and entangled. As poets and advocates, we declare our intention that the scope of this project be as inclusive—to humans and places—as we hope the mantle of protection that land trusts offer can be. Our work in writing the land will never be complete but rather gains strength, depth, beauty, and energy from a multitude of voices.
Maine Audubon’s Borestone Audubon Sanctuary will be featured in an upcoming volume, Writing the Land: Streamlines, due out in November 2023, and we are thrilled to announce that Stuart Kestenbaum asked to be paired with us.
Stuart Kestenbaum is the author of six collections of poems, most recently Things Seemed to Be Breaking (Deerbrook Editions 2021), and a collection of essays The View from Here (Brynmorgen Press). He was the host/curator of the Maine Public Radio program Poems from Here and the podcasts Make/Time and Voices of the Future. He was the director of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts from 1988 until 2015. More recently, working with the Libra Foundation, he designed and implemented the Monson Arts residency and workshop program, where he now serves as senior advisor. He served as Maine’s poet laureate from 2016-2021. (Monson Arts is not far from Borestone Audubon Sanctuary and is our partner in a workshop this June.)
For Writing the Land: Streamlines, Kestenbaum has written two poems—”Naming It” and “Borestone Mountain Creation Song”—about Borestone. Both poems explore, in their own ways, the interconnectedness of all things, and the insignificance of humans when compared to the timelessness of the wilderness. Look for more about this project in the fall!
