Poems

The Heart of WYP

The Heart of WYP: A Community Zine Read Zine Now Dear WYP Community, At Wilderness Youth Project, we encourage gratitude in every facet of our work, whether it’s in a circle of kids on program or in our staff meetings. Giving thanks has become as natural to us as the rocky sandstone of the Santa …

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Notes From the Field: Condor Teens / Desde el campo: Los adolescentes Cóndor

From the Field: Condor Teens / Desde el campo: Los adolescentes Cóndor Ver en español You cannot trick teens with candy change their feelings or make them eat extra oatmeal.   you cannot convince them that this is not hard, grueling, sweaty, painful   you cannot make them walk faster be nice brush their teeth …

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Sycamore

Sycamore

The sycamore calendar starts in November,
not with the buds but the building of buds
deep in the sap, with branches …

Wintering

Wintering

Finally, the winter is willing to chill us.
The heavy quilt uncasketed from the cedar chest.

Its weight presses us all night
Like leaves in a summer camp scrapbook.

It is the season …

The Flow

The Flow

When the water comes, it brings the mountain
and sings the story of the shifting ridge,
summons green to bloom along its edge.
Shapes the hills with patient excavation.

Water comes and carries …

Old Habits

Old Habits

I needed to renounce familiar things—
I wasn’t going away, I thought, but towards.
Now, pulled out of black waters,
wet towels draped across my back,
my old home will not hold me anymore …

Consensus

What if we can’t wake to birdsong and what if

of the weather

we are afraid?

Afraid you will leave me, afraid

I will fail.

Our daughter thinks …

Pond

Pond

The lazy center 
The lazy center is a green neither
sharp nor fading, reminding

not of before nor after.

Picture the waterweeds have always been …

A STONE IN MY HAND

A STONE IN MY HAND

In the cave of first birth
the bears gather
move around inside each other
thick with bone and fur
look out with the eyes
of the many

all this I hold in my hand
deep …

A GIFT FOR TODAY

A GIFT FOR TODAY

How can it be that feathers fly?
They drift in and out of windows,
fall like leaves through the air
and dance to the tune of the wind.

I find them resting in corners
or hiding behind …