As Wilderness Interface Zone approaches its third birthday, it’s growing up a little. Formalist poet Jonathon Penny has consented to join WIZ’s literary ecotone in the role of contributing editor. Jonathon has a keen eye for the belles-lettres. Beside being a wonderful poet possessing a unique voice, he took his MA in Renaissance literature at [...]
(Boulder City, Nevada)
I did not know I was from the desert
when I moved to this hell of heat
that engulfed, stifled, weighed down leaden.
I pouted and sweltered that first summer
while sauna winds desiccated Spring bushes
into brittle skeletons whose sapped roots
cowered with reptiles under charred, rock pavement.
Then the heat gave way to a docile winter
so warm there [...]
In Spring she lays her winter buckskin by,
bathes her brown skin in gentle rains
then dons a robe of filmy green.
From a hidden place in the earth
she brings her cache of jewels;
slips circlets of golden poppies round her arms,
drapes turquoise lupine about her neck,
anoints herself with scent of evening primrose,
white silver in the moonlight.
Wind, smitten by [...]
The air is a-buzz with wings
bird to butterfly
bee to dragonfly
flit, fly and flutter by
cherry trees lifting petticoats to heaven
full-blossomed defiance
caught mid-cartwheel
kicking up chaos
in can-can regalia
long-limbed show-offs
in ruffles and bloomers
late and early
daffodils and Japanese magnolia
crocus and iris and tulips cover places
old winter (that cold-handed lover)
has relinquished at last
bright spindled forsythia
lilies and redbud
double flowering peach
too much is [...]
Light’s rise sparks bright blooms:
birdsong, fields of it, vining–
spring’s first green flourish.
These mornings, I step outside my back door to hear the hush of winter thrown off by a clamor of birdsong–the crackle of starlings, jazzy riffs of purple house finches, a lonely two-syllable call from a flycatcher, screeches [...]
Today WIZ celebrates its birth of two years ago (thanks again, Wm Morris) and its continued good health and growth. Profound thanks are due its readers and contributors–as Sam says to Captain Faramir, you’ve shown your quality. I think Wilderness Interface Zone’s dream of building the ground story of a meeting place for Mormon and [...]
Cayuga Lake’s asleep again,
ice-locked at her edges.
Dressed once more
in shreds of white,
organza, wispy curls
across her skin-
beauty lying deeper
than her dreams.
Denise and I would skate
when we were girls,
flying toward each other
till we met and locking hands
would spin in dizzy circles,
laughter pealing bright
in frigid air;
innocent of life to come
and choices made,
of sorrow bearing arms
against the days
that rush [...]
Come, take my hand and we will walk
through silver night luminous with light
from moon and city
There a shadowy nighthawk
shivers by and veers
away from sight.
We will talk of common things,
of tasks and children, as we have
these thirty years and more.
Inca doves moan themselves to sleep
in citrus soaked air;
a widow scurries back against the wall;
her shimmering web [...]
I love the hour that hangs its weightless haze
of yawn across my bed. An ivory wrap
of humming stillness, spectral dance embossed
in thimble-light. I love the wentletrap
of thoughts and gurgled chants that twist before
white shoals of sleep. The bend and blur of night
with loveliness and brokenness inside
soft vagaries that pivot in the light.
I love the hour [...]
Wilderness Interface Zone seeks submissions of poetry, prose, fiction–any of the kinds of nature writing listed in its submission guidelines. Please take a quick look at our “About” page too. Photographs that take nature as subject matter are also welcomed. WIZ finds especially interesting works that illustrate creative, productive human relationships with the natural world (and vice versa). [...]