Poet for the Land

 

Nancy Canyon, Writing the Land Poet

As a Writing the Land poet, I adopted Todd Creek, a Whatcom Land Trust parcel, last year, my one year tenure beginning May 2022. The program is through a group called NatureCulture, pairing land trust parcels with poets. I have written many poems about the river, the creek, the floods, the river silt, dead trees, growing trees, and all those rocks you see beside me. It is a beautiful parcel the Land Trust is protecting. 

Writing the Land poets turn in three poems each, and a recording of reading one. They are then published in books that are available online. See the book for the northeast poets here: https://uvlt.org/product/writing-the-land-northeast-poetry-anthology/

Yesterday, when we went out to Todd Creek (it's about 45 minutes from our home in Bellingham, WA) while my husband, a land steward,clipped invasive species I wrote words in a little book for future poems as I walked along the access road and then along the beach. 

The access road seems part of the experience to me, as it rounds a field of corn where bee hives are placed in the summer. There are also trees that have been planted along the road on the right that are about 20' tall now. The range from fir, grand fir, spruce, to cedar. They are quite beautiful.

The Todd Creek parcel has many planted saplings with blue cones surrounding them. Some are thiving, some are surviving, and some are dead. I can see this parcel shaded by tall trees in the future. It will be a great protection for the river, for wildlife, and for the land itself.

If you get a chance, go to the NatureCulture site and see what the poets are doing, I'm sure you will be impressed.

Best in poetry,

Nancy Canyon