The sun is a smear, a spreading stain of light. The air hangs swollen from the sky, blending all lines of distinction into blurry transitions. Edges disappear and my eyes soften, preferring the gradual smudge of thickly forested green slopes covering the entire expanse of land except where the lichen crusted cliffs interrupt their path. A crew of mountain goats, 4 adults and one freshly born, in their shaggy pantaloons nibble on willow leaves and fresh herbs as they slowly amble up a steep ro... read more

I am beginning to hear her songs again. The song of my childhood, of waves and sand, of vine and lizard, of heat and wind. The song of an island in the Gulf of Mexico, just off of the mainland of Tampa. It is here that I had my first mystical experiences: lying on my belly under the porch for hours, entranced by a lizard’s throat pouch stretching skin of red and blue taut and thin, stirring a witches' brew of shells, sea water, and incantations into magical potions, and tracing delicate trail... read more

i had surgery on my right wrist this wednesday. as i lay there in loopy land lined up in the holding room, the sensation that i was a domestic animal lined up in a factory farm for slaughter slowly built in my head. nurses rushed past, joking with eachother. a mad scramble of paper and fluids. people blinking in and out of existence. talking to someone and then not remembering what had been said and only that they walked away laughing. prior to this, when i was told to strip down to nothing b... read more

the snow falls gently in flat, chunky flakes. collecting in branches weighted to the max with angel droppings. i tug on a branch and it reels from my hand, giddy from the release, triggering other branches to jump into a vertical position. the snow falls heavily and a fine crystalline dust whumps up and over my body. supremely refreshing. the river gurgles and glugs around snow islands whose foundations are single rocks with icy skirts and fringed balleens of icicles straining down to drip i... read more

i came home to alaska for the first time in 10 months. i would never have willingly left my enchanted home for that long, but medical care required me to be in a slightly more "civilized" place. coming back, i had expected the land to wait for me, but, of course, she hadn't. being home is like re-uniting with an old lover who you haven't communicated with for some time. When you first meet, there is the awkwardness of strangers but simultaneously a familiarity. i have pulled my canoe in the ... read more