Writing poetry and sketching in nature are two of my favorite things to do. When I visit my adopted Whatcom Land Trust parcel, I sit on a log and jot down my ideas, or sketch something in my journal. While I’m “hard at it,” my husband, Ron Pattern, one of the land stewards for the Todd Creek property, works on removing invasive plants. Once our work is complete, we take out our lunch, kick back and enjoy the scenery.
Writing the Land is a collaboration between land trusts and poets. Whatcom Land Trust buys property to protect the land and our future. There are hundreds of new trees planted at this site, so eventually the property will be treed, which will help to protect the salmon stream. Here are some notes I took after seeing the flood damage for the first time:
May 1st: The flood washed away much of the bank where I’m sitting on my REI
mat. I sit back from the edge–as it is undercut now–facing the confluence
of Todd Creek and South Fork Nooksack. All around me blackberries punch through
3″ of silt. The creek is a dirty tan color. 30’ out, a log jam the size of a small saw mill, has been shoved
together by high water. It is now a playground for swallows, their contour flight weaving in and around
the pile of logs. I hear Killdeers peeping, a sound my mother
liked, though she swore she hated birds. Their song is one I love to hear. ~Nancy Canyon
For more about Writing The Land and about my tenure as a Writing the Land Poet, read the wonderful article written by Margaret Bikman in Whatcom Talk.
Please sign up for my blog posts and news about coming events, both writing and art. And if you want to read more of my poems and fiction, buy a book through Village Books, Saltwater (poems) and Celia’s Heaven (novel.)
Nancy Canyon is widely published in Take a Stand: Art Against Hate, True Stories, II & III & IV, Nature’s Healing Spirit, Songs of Ourselves, Raven Chronicles, and more. She holds the MFA in Creative Writing from PLU, works as a writing coach for The Narrative Project and teaches for Chuckanut Writers. Nancy lives with her husband Ron and two pets near Lake Whatcom. Nancy’s poetry book, Saltwater, and her novel, Celia’s Heaven are available at villagebooks.com. She is shopping her memoir STRUCK, detailing a summer working as a fire lookout attendant in the Clearwater National Forest in the early 70s. For more about Nancy, sign up at www.nancycanyon.com
