water

March 9, 2022 2

Hydropolitics

(Profits from my book sales this month—and for the foreseeable future—will benefit UNICEF, specifically [...]

December 31, 2021 0

Frames

Sometimes, in writing, we use a technique known as framing. We book-end a story between a beginning and [...]

November 21, 2021 2

Giving

This time last year, my brother Jon and I had just begun cleaning personal belongings out of my father’s [...]

October 31, 2021 8

Haunted

Nothing in the world is truly separate, say the physicists and Zen priests, all of us borderless entities of [...]

July 22, 2021 2

“Swimming Grand Canyon is a most unusual take on the place, contained in quirky poems from Lawton’s life on her way downstream . . . Lives loved, loves lost, detours, and roads not taken. Her writing is beautiful and rich. Each poem is carefully crafted, and each line points directly to its target. Metaphors for our lives burst into our consciousness and deepen our own experience. Every poem is an unexpected gem, its own universe. Whatever you think these poems will be—they are not that.” —Christopher Brown [...]

June 27, 2021 2

Refuge

“Dog Days are approaching; you must, therefore, make both hay and haste while the Sun shines, for when old Sirius takes command of the weather, he is such an unsteady, crazy dog, there is no dependence upon him.” [...]

March 16, 2021 14

Bubble

"We don't grieve in a bubble," my bereavement counselor tells me. She's been advising me about grief, not only as an experience, but as a process and opportunity for learning. There's been no way to talk about the death of my father late last year without framing it within 2020's overwhelming and worldwide losses. Piled on top of those, grief feels bigger. Cumulative. We build grief debt, as others have called the build-up of loss upon loss upon mounting loss. [...]

February 28, 2021 7

Soul

When I was a river guide I carried Barry Lopez's River Notes in my ammo box. I liked to lend it to the passengers or read essays from it aloud on my raft. In 2015, I told Barry about its importance to me the first time we had a conversation of more than a few words. He looked at me carefully for a minute and went back to his work. Later I learned through his wife Debra Gwartney how uncomfortable he was hearing that kind of praise. Maybe the words cast him as a god in a way that put pressure on our friendship. [...]

December 20, 2020 7

Lifelines

Staying alive on the 2020 rollercoaster ride has meant taking shelter—and finding connections where we can. This year's traditional year-end list of resources for writers and readers features a few favorite literary and environmental lifelines from the past twelve months. [...]

November 27, 2020 12

Forward

The young man standing six feet behind me offers to buy my drink.

I’ve wandered up the river to Main Street to mail a letter at our small-town post office. Making an unplanned stop at the local coffee shop, I’ve asked for a golden latté and ginger scone. Rung up and ready to pay the shop’s one barista before she fills my order, I’ve realized my wallet must be sitting on the kitchen island back home. [...]