I had meant to have ready a piece called “Is Ecology and Climate the Same Thing?” But that of course was being overly optimistic. In the meantime I offer this poem, which relates to the subject I suppose in terms of its sense of circularity. Salish Sea is a renaming of the inland sea that enters through the Strait of Juan de Fuca before reaching south into Puget Sound and north into the Strait of Georgia, near Vancouver. I like it because it acknowledges the indigenous presence here and also recognizes the whole sea rather than breaking it apart into pieces named by those who, by such naming, sought to claim them. It is also a beautiful, and even affectionate, combination of words.
This grey is made of distance. Seafaring clouds, water creatures migrate overhead, trailing the horizon looking only down. Next door the chimney bricks have settled a fraction. Fine cracks decorate the mortar and wait for the rain. Eagles heckle in the high branches fighting over ribcages and wings. A widgeon’s small body must go far.
I like it!