WITH THE SUMMIT SOMEWHERE ABOVE

October 19, 2016October 19, 2016 ~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Let me confess to struggling with the preposition for the title of this collection.

The initial thought was of being atop a mountain, with its panoramic views. But that runs the danger of suggesting superiority, submission of nature to man’s will, or placing more value on a given result rather than the process of getting there (and back). The climb, I’ll contend, is purification for what lies ahead.

An alternative “on the mountain” allows for the sense of having one’s feet on a trail or even presenting a series somehow “about” the mountain as a set of explanations.

I settled on “under” for its sense of looking upward, in awe or even reverence, as well as the fact that even in mountainous terrain, we live in the valley, with some degree of protection from the elements. Where the streams come down and weave their threaded branches together. Where at times the clouds nestle in. Where the eyes wander from the summit.

~*~

For your own copy, click here.

IF YOU MAKE THE EFFORT

October 9, 2016October 9, 2016 ~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Food, shelter, clothing, bedding, cooking gear, toiletries, maps and guidebooks – everything practical, collected, focused – fit on your back. You’re as free as can be, if you make the effort.

Each trek is a revelation you pack home.

For your own copy, click here.

Back Pack 1

~*~

HERE COMES COMPANY

October 2, 2016October 2, 2016 ~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Chief Seattle, who appears in the Grilled Salmon section of this poetry collection, is an elusive figure in American history. Whether he pulled a fast one is another question, but he did get a major city named in his honor.

As for his role here?

I enjoy his company. I hope you do, too.

~*~

For your own copy, click here.

PICKING THE RIGHT, RIPE WILD BERRIES

September 25, 2016August 13, 2016 ~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

I keep thinking about the stories children are taught, especially here in America. Carol Bly once wrote of the Scandinavian tales the descendants in Minnesota never heard, unlike the mass-media mishmash they were served. I’m left wondering if Ohio ever had anything like Kokopelli or Coyote from Native American lore and wisdom. I can keep hoping.

The fact is, most Americans are estranged from their roots. We don’t even know where we live, not really.

Forget the Zombie Apocalypse, we rarely know how to select the healthy wild berries. Leave it at that.

As for the hornpipe? It’s a Celtic dance, faster and more complicated than a jig – or gigue, if you insist. But I also like the vision of a pipe carved from a horn and played.

Care to join me for a dance?

~*~

For your own copy, click here.

NAMING TODAY’S FORBIDDEN FRUIT

September 1, 2016August 29, 2016 ~ Jnana Hodson ~ 3 Comments

As I contend in my latest book release at Thistle/Flinch editions, the Biblical story of the Garden of Eden goes much deeper than the traditional children’s telling or, for that matter, the conventional interpretation that focuses on disobedience and a teaching imposed much later, the one known as Original Sin.

The surprisingly short Creation story – the second one in the Bible, actually – is one of those texts that just won’t let go of me, and the new layers of understanding just keep on surfacing.

The other morning I was struck by a consideration of what the Forbidden Fruit might be in our own time. Nowadays we could consider things like global warming (more accurately, climatic instability), overpopulation, or nuclear arms proliferation, just for starters – things caused by our own curiosity and consumption, one way or another. Each bears an ultimate warning, “and you are not to touch it, lest you die.” Each one is a negative consequence of advances that seemed good at the time they were introduced.

So here we are, in a situation very much like Adam and Eve in the aftermath, looking for direction and restored balance.

For my earlier musings on the original text, take a look at Eden Embraced. I’d say it really is all about the timeless human condition.

ALL TOGETHER, NOW, HERE WE GO

June 26, 2016May 5, 2016 ~ Jnana Hodson ~ 2 Comments

Some of us have backbones. And some don’t.

We all breathe in some fashion. And eat.

Protozoa, echinoderms, annelids, mollusks, arthropods, crustaceans, arachnids, insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals.

Welcome to the club.

~*~

For your own copy of my animal nature poems, click here.

MOODY RIVER WINDING AWAY

May 15, 2016May 5, 2016 ~ Jnana Hodson ~ 2 Comments

What may appear to be a lazy river meandering amid its wooded isles deserves consideration and room to run wild.

Passions arise and freeze over. The flow dwindles to rock. Rats run along the shoreline of factory brick at the dam. A few miles on, either direction, the dairy herds gather.

All of it reflecting my soul when I lived there.

~*~

For your own copy, click here.

WORLD OF COMFORTING WONDER

May 4, 2016March 15, 2016 ~ Jnana Hodson ~ 1 Comment

Living in a temperate zone where green returns after gray slumber, I always find the leafy proliferation a wonder. It’s a festive temple, of sorts, and a comfort.

Restore your soul in its abundance.

~*~

For your own copy, click here.

ENDLESS PERSPECTIVES

May 1, 2016March 15, 2016 ~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Rarely do you stand at the summit. It’s a lesson of life.

Even on the trail, the climax awaits, somewhere overhead.

We need something to look up to, from infancy on.

And then there are clouds – or the surrounding range.

Or the streams, threading together, below.

~*~

For your own copy, click here.

TRAIL NOTES FROM MY YOUTH

April 23, 2016March 15, 2016 ~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

The lessons remain:

Travel light.
Take no more than you need.
Leave a campsite cleaner than you found it.

Not a bad model for a poem, either. Or a whole collection to pack along the way.

~*~

For your own copy, click here.