Poet Tim McNulty’s video (below) transports us into the sylvan backcountry of the Olympic Peninsula for a few moments of glorious escapism during this protracted pandemic. One of several poetry readings featured during The Rewilding Institute‘s June 22, 2020, virtual book launch for Rewilding Earth: Best of 2019, these wordsmiths remind us that poetry offers a timely, accessible portal between the imagination and wilderness. A bridge between the cloistered, quarantined world of Covid-19 and the exuberant optimism of rivers and ravines, caribou, and wolves.
Poet Tim McNulty reads his poems, “The River I” and “The River II”, both of which are included in The Rewilding Institute‘s Rewilding Earth: Best of 2019 anthology.
The second annual Rewilding Earth anthology, published in partnership with Essex Editions, features essays, poems, and art by leading advocates for the natural world. This elegant volume inspires from first glance with a joyful rewilding vision gracing the cover by Essex, NY based author/illustrator Steven Kellogg. Within this user-friendly collection, you will discover chronicles of heroes restoring wild places and saving endangered species; features on people adopting positive, healing roles in the desperate work of abating the extinction and climate crises; common-sense suggestions for how to peacefully relax human numbers (in terms of population and consumption) to levels that allow a renewed flourishing of biological diversity; and the ingredients and recipes for preventing future pandemics.
John Davis, TRI Executive Director and anthology co-editor, offers the following lyrical reflection on McNulty’s poems:
“Tim McNulty’s poems for Rewilding take me to the River. They bring me in sight of Caribou and Grizzly Bear and remind me what sublimely wild places Alaska still has, thanks to heroic conservation leaders like those represented in this second Rewilding Earth anthology.”
Hearing aloud poet Tim McNulty’s recitation of his poems brings to life the scenes he paints in the mind of the listeners, though seeing the poems written conveys another kind of experience for readers…
Poet Tim McNulty’s River Poetry
During the Rewilding Earth‘s virtual book launch, poet Tim McNulty recited in full the following two poems that originally appeared in In Blue Mountain Dusk (Pleasure Boat Studio, 1992) and were featured in the Rewilding Earth: Best of 2019 anthology.
Below are the poems:
The River I
Along the south bank of the McKinley,
close to dark:
the fresh tracks of what look to be
A young caribou,
And following, over them,
The larger track of the wolf.
Clouds deepen the mountain night;
a hawk owl circles the stones.
I build a cairn to mark our crossing.
It stands
like a man who has waited too long for something.
By morning
only the river is left singing.
The River II
Who live here speak footfall and wind.
Caribou, belly-deep in willow,
lifts his antlers and drifts away.
Ptarmigan flutter tails in fright.
Grizzly has led her children up a ravine:
she rests now, almost sleeping.
The tips of her fur shine with icelight.
Downriver, Raven draws circles
around a story his uncle left unfinished.
Already the small hoofed feet are dancing
far over the tundra.
About Tim McNulty
Tim McNulty is a poet, essayist, and nature writer based on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. He is the author of ten poetry books and eleven books of natural history. Tim has received the Washington State Book Award and the National Outdoor Book Award, among other honors.
Tim’s newest book of poems, Ascendance, is published by Pleasure Boat Studio. His natural history books include Olympic National Park: A Natural History, and Washington’s Mount Rainier National Park. His work has been translated into German, Chinese, and Japanese. Tim lives with his wife in the foothills of the Olympic Mountains.
Rewilding Earth: Best of 2019
Rewilding is restoring natural processes and species, then stepping back so that nature can express its own will. In essence, rewilding means giving the land back to wildlife and wildlife back to the land.
Recalling the late great Wild Earth journal, this provocative anthology, edited by Susan Morgan and John Davis, showcases the most notable original articles and art published by Rewilding Earth (rewilding.org) in 2019. Rewilding Earth is an inspiring, informative, and user-friendly manual for how to protect and restore wild places and their residents.
Learn more and order the book here.
