The Eagle River Nature Center has never had a Poet in Residence. Or it has, without knowing it: This gateway to Chugach State Park, minutes from my house, has long been my go-to place for restoration of spirit and poetic inspiration. As partial payback, I will be offering quarterly poetry workshops throughout 2019, from 2:00p to 3:30p on the last Sunday of January, April, July, and October. In addition to the seasonal focus, each workshop will have its own theme: In January: A Survey of Nature/Eco-Poetry (with an emphasis on winter and Alaskan poets); in February: Haiku (with an emphasis on spring and including other short-form nature poetry); in July: Erasure Poetry (with an emphasis on summer and science); in October: Ekphrasis Poetry (with an emphasis on autumn and art).

As of a few days ago, a thin sheet of ice was beginning to form over the waters around the nature center's viewing deck. Never before (in three decades of observing) have I witnessed so much open water in mid-November. The workshops will be an occasion to discuss observations of seasonal changes, and to record them:
In the north, open water
references a lack of ice,
connotes the danger
of no firm ground, the anger
of subsistence foods
kept out of reach, the price
of others choosing ease
at the expense of need.
When mountains remain
mirrored in winter, we witness
the ichorous evidence
of earth's pooling plight,
the serous exacerbation
of peril, human-incited.
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