Category: environment

buried alive

an idyll
from the chattolanee dome of billion year old gneiss
cutting into half billion year old marble
through ghosts of volcanoes and coastal alluvium
to the estuary marsh,
blue veins in a breast gathering
dipping pond and deep and slaughterhouse and moores
rowland and towson and western
cold spring,
raccoon king fisher possum heron bear woodpecker
fox owl deer hawk bobcat parakeet beaver crane,
swimming holes and fishing spots and baptisms
fords and foot bridges and races.
a night terror
persecuted churning bridges walls
roiling horses cattle pigs carts carriages
floating furniture barrels timber humans.
an essence
what we will

jones falls and shot tower at sunrise
(in 1817 one of the worst of several severe foods resulting from the mismanagement of jones falls occurred)

doctor stevensons experiment

durum, red, and white
from rolling amber waves
in frederick, baltimore, harford
york and lancaster.
milled and moved across oceans
feeding armies of empire
and the world.
with star power filtered for a billion years

elevator at sunrise
(in 1750 the first cargo of wheat was shipped from fells point to ireland, spurring a boom that established baltimore as a major port city)

water lots

to the channel of the river
that penetrated a ledge
wharves of pine cord
one thousand feet.
named when it ran fast and cold
and the channel was glens and gorges
stretching from sunrise to sunset

old pier at sunrise
(in 1759 two landowners built wharves from gay and lombard streets to avoid the cost of buying a waterfront lot)

coles harbor

hills roll up and out
beyond the last reach of the sea
curled up,
the small green bones of mountain upon mountain
mashed and heaped from volcanoes and deltas and plains
then washed away.
hap hazard
timber neck
welsh adventure
diligence
mary borne
ridgelys delight.
a warren of plantations and farms in the hills around the harbor
with narrow roads through the marshes and woods

inner harbor at sunrise
(cole’s harbor, which would later be the area first incorporated into baltimore town, was first warranted in 1668 and was surrounded by several land patents and farms)

bole armoniack

summer is hot as in spain
winter is cold as in france
thunder and lightning purify the air,
in this place for industrious people.
just here no gold or silver with the iron ore
no way to sail to china
no forts or warriors to count.
but we thank you for the brass cross
and the wonderful map that showed so many the way

harbor at sunrise
(captain john smith explored the chesapeake, including the branches of the patapsco, in 1608 and published a map of the region)

tide covered with froth

along the shores
hunters came
killing with stones
and harvesting,
always walking.
settling where fish teemed,
cultivating and weaving and potting
carving and tanning and painting.
andaste were hunting to the north of this backwater
when a lone shallop
rose on the water with the sun.
and slipped quietly past

cove at sunrise
(humans ranged into the patapsco region more than 18 thousand years ago as the glaciers of the last ice age, which had reached northern pennsylvania, were receding–indigenous people were here when captain john smith explored the region in 1608)

grenville and herring

top of world
is briefly so
sands squeezing into rock
rise up a warrior
towering reflecting every second of suns arc
breathing swift air steering clouds
kneeling down stretched arms bare
collapsing embrace warmth underneath
upturn and plough
bearing the next
warrior bloodbreath swims with us

run at sunrise
(baltimore gneiss formed over 1 billion years ago when the grenville mountains were forming is exposed in herring run park)