Poetry from Writing the Land
Thirteen Moons on the Saco
by Cheryl Savageau
i
it's snowing big flakes
birds fly over the flood plain
summer on their wings
ii
three pairs of mallards
the green and blue of the males
iridescent
iii
brown spots on white breast
sandpiper walks the wet beach
among red maple seedlings
iv
five soft thin needles
green on the branches
copper on the floor
v
in the cobble barren
green lobes of lichens on rocks
furry beach heather flowers yellow
vi
kayaks on river
teenagers swimming off rocks
green dragonfly
vii
loons float down the slow river
in the banks, swallows nesting
viii
in the tall grass
butterflies hover over milkweed
bear cub tumbles into blueberries
ix
eagle black against the sky
the calls of bluejays and crows
white birch yellow leaves
x
dusk
red leaves falling
moose wades in
xi
geese calling
from their arrow in the sky
chill wind
xii
in a forest of grey branches
the only color
is the red of the cardinal
xiii
morning, open ice
opal-faced otter
gobbles fish
then dives
by Cheryl Savageau
for Writing The Land
Dahl Audubon, Conway NH
first published in Writing The Land
Cheryl Savageau is a poet, memoirist, writer, and textile artist. Her most recent book of poetry is Mother/Land. Her memoir, Out of the Crazywoods, was published in 2020. She has received Fellowships in Poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Artists Fellowship Program, and MacDowell. She currently teaches creative writing, Native American lit, and speculative fiction at Breadloaf School of English at Middlebury College.
Growing
by Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder
When I first came
to these New England forests
I missed the grand sky,
the open land of the plains.
I was always trying to peek behind
the tall trees, the granite cliffs,
for a view of wide lands
that disappeared into the curve of the sky.
But we are made up of places
and the land weaves itself into us.
We wrap the seasons round, growth rings
expanding outward to meet what is there to greet us.
I stand on the edge of this field
preparing to walk into the dappled shade
of this woodland
and at last open my arms to return the embrace.
by Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder
for Writing The Land
Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder is the author of Rebirth: Mothering Through Ecological Collapse, forthcoming from Broadleaf Books in Spring 2025. Her writing can also be found in Emergence Magazine, The Common, Crannog Magazine, the EcoTheo Review, the edited poetry collection Writing the Land, and in Katie Holten's The Language of Trees: A Rewilding of Literature and Landscape. She lives with her family in Portland, Maine.
About Writing the Land
Writing the Land is a collaborative outreach and fundraising project for land protection organizations. Through anthologies, poets help raise awareness of the importance for land conservation.
NatureCulture LLC is the parent organization of Writing the Land, a production of Lis McLoughlin. NatureCulture organizes and produces events and anthologies for the creative and environmental communities including the annual Authors and Artists Festival. All our events are solar powered from an off-grid location in the rural forests of western Massachusetts. Visit us to see a complete list of our services, what we’re hosting now, along with past events.