Poetry / Writing

National Poetry Month: Writing Wild

Catherine Flynn28 Comments

Mary Austin is today’s featured author. Like most of the women profiled in Writing Wild, Austin charted her own course in life. Aalto describes her as “an ethnographer and feminist, activist and mystic, speaker and writer.” (p. 49) In her first book, The Land of Little Rain, Austin paints a vivid picture of the plants, animals, and people of the area between the High Sierra and the Mojave Desert of California. Unlike the region she’s describing, Austin’s writing is lush and evocative: this is a place she knows and loves.

Today’s poem is another Golden Shovel. With so many rich lines to choose from, it was a challenge to pick just one, so I have woven some of Austin’s other phrases into this poem. These words are italicized.

Mary Austin in 1900
photo by Charles Lummis, via Wikipedia

Previous Writing Wild posts:

Day 1: Dorothy Wordsworth
Day 2: Susan Fenimore Cooper
Day 3: Gene Stratton-Porter

28 thoughts on “National Poetry Month: Writing Wild”

  1. “How can we not have a moment to notice” feels like words that need to be blazoned across our skies! Each day I’m loving to learn about these spectacular women. Thanks, Catherine & Happy Easter!

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  2. This is a tribute to Austin’s words and a message I want to hold day in and day out. Seeing others, nature’s wonder and ourselves as actors among both is what our busyness should be about!

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  9. Catherine, this poem of advice is light but true. It hits home. How can we have lost our attention for our natural world? Ghost moon and still blue herons call to me.

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  21. This is definitely a powerful poem, Catherine. “Everyone has deep mysteries hidden within themselves” is so true but other lines are equally true. Like “No time spent being astonished is wasted”……another truth and important. I really like what you are doing and think you are coming up with poems that are stunning.

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