The runner bean I planted at dusk formed tight coils of vine by morning, green circles grasping a nearby pole like a newborn’s firm-handed grip. A parent’s sturdy arm says “I am here to help you grow. Reach around me, and follow me up. This way, this way.” In time, the bean plant grows and […]
Emilie Lygren
Emilie Lygren is a nonbinary poet and outdoor educator whose work emerges from the intersections between scientific observation and poetic wonder. Her first book of poetry, What We Were Born For, was chosen by the Young People's Poet Laureate as the February 2022 Book Pick for the Poetry Foundation. She lives in California, where she wonders about oaks and teaches poetry in local classrooms. Find more of her work and words at emilielygren.com.
The oldest lobster fisher in the world says she might as well keep doing it
For Virginia Oliver, age 101 The boat may fiddle and drift a bit nowadays as it carves into the silver lines of the marsh. Fishing for 93 years has leathered her hands, but she’s undaunted by the skirmish of wire traps and sodden ropes, still loves the hush of reeds in the breeze, tells […]
Turtles at the Convention Center
I. No one will have ever so thoroughly studied the ugly carpet. They are unimpressed by the automatic projector screen, a hundred pitchers of iced tea. They see the failing of so many rows of chairs all facing the same direction. I worry for them, stunned by cold in unfamiliar waters, Where do we swim […]
For the grandmother teaching children how to plant seeds in the community garden
“Just a little bit, they onlyneed to go down an inch,make a small hole, use your pinkie, put the seeds in,gently, gently.” Elders pass on practice with invocation of earth under fingernails It doesn’t matter so much if the rows are straight so long as we remember ourselves. We can spend a day like this, or […]