“An Interview with Kim Stafford by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, and Kim Stafford’s Poem, ‘Daddy'” explores what it means to be a poet in the world as well as the son of sense-of-place poet William Stafford. “On a good day, I feel like my father and I are a family guild sharing the craft—the calling, really, of writing as witness,” says Kim Stafford. Read more here of An Interview with Kim Stafford and Kim Stafford’s Poem “Daddy”

“Just Shy of Stars” by Annette Hope Billings is a poem about growing up Black in the Midwest.

“Burcham Park” by Anne Haehl is a poem about a riverside park in all its seasonal tilts over time and in our lives. “The sun warms my back,/ the cool breeze/ lovingly ruffles my hair.” Read more of Burcham Park

“Nature Journaling” by Roy Beckemeyer is a guide to keeping a nature journal. This article describes “A way help you to slow down, look around, and take note of your life as you live it so that you can savor it now and again and again in the future.” See more of Nature Journal

“Wilson’s Phalarope – Prairie Wetland Harbinger of Spring” by Roy Beckemeyer features photography and writing about this native shorebird. “Phalaropes are shorebirds; Wilson’s Phalaropes (Phalaropus tricolor) are common and widespread as they migrate across Kansas and the plains each spring.” See more of  Wilson’s Phalarope

“Dainty Dancers” by Roy Beckemeyer features photography and writing about the damselflies of Kansas tallgrass prairies. “You have to look close to find them, these streamside tiny treasures. But isn’t that the case with so much of the natural world. God never said that he would bless us only with these wide-open skies and vast expanses of green grass and not with small, hidden gems.” See more of Dainty Dancers

“Snow” and “Five Pines” by Mary Silwance are about various angles of seasons and place. “You appear/ suddenly/ like a forgotten lover/ in the produce aisle” begins “Snow, Late March. ” “It has been snowing nonstop. We are in liminal space. The routines of work and school have been suspended; we forget about alarm clocks, bedtimes” starts “Five Pines.” See more of Snow, Late March and Five Pines

 

“Winter and Her” by Randy Attwood is a collection of prose poems that explores the connection of the living season to us. ” When the rains were soft in the fall we would stay in bed, just looking at each other’s eyes and listening to the sounds of the drops as they hit the roof and the collecting puddles. Then, there would be the battle of who could tickle the other person out of bed so that one of us would have to go and make the coffee and bring two cups back to bed where we would listen to the rain again.” See more of Weather and Her

“Four Poems by Tyler Shledon” include “Bike Race,” “You Write,” “Home,” and “Watching Sky,” all speaking to the poetics of life in the here and now. “At 2 AM, you are the last rider/ and you rattle into the chute/ through the roadblocks here on Main” opens “Bike Race.” “….while you listen/ to a train lowing like cattle/ for miles across the plains” starts “You Write.” “The kitchen window I looked through/ after first moving in to this breaking place/ has recently become host to a large black bird,/ and none of us know its name” begins “Home.” “Mornings, this farmhouse/ echoes dusty silence/ up to where the air” begins “Watching Sky.” See more at Four Poems by Tyler Sheldon

“Look Again” by Sandy Hazlett is a poem about the power of close attention.

“Romeo at Pin Oak” by Olive Sullivan is an essay about place, love and adventure. “Frank and I took the dogs to Pin Oak Lake this afternoon and ran into God. Now, God is a personage I don’t really believe in. I’m not a church-goer, not even a Christian. When a devout friend of mine asked me what turned me against God, though, I was shocked. I said, ‘I don’t think I’ve been turned against God.'” Read more here of Romeo at Pin Oak

“Kansas Prairie: End of May” by Elizabeth Schultz is a poem about spring unfolding in the prairie. “Step into this Kansas prairie/ in May, and it washes up/ around you as the ocean/ does, swirling” starts this poem. Read more here of Kansas Prairie End of May