OnEarth Podcast

Memory, Age, and Love Poetry: Talking with Poet Daniel Mark Epstein

Zachary Sussman — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:41:17 -0500

Poet and biographer Daniel Mark Epstein recites his poem, "In Late November," and talks with Zachary Sussman about memory, age, and what it means to be a “love poet.”

In Late November
Of the butterfly-bush, whose purple flowers
The monarch and the swallowtail
Sipped in August, near my windowpane
(Such a wealth of wings and flower clusters
I could hardly see the grass, the trees)
Only stalks and branches remain,
And panicles tipped with russet berries.
Now I see everything so vividly:
The young woman on her hands and knees,
Planting the meek shrubs three years ago --
Three short years and thirteen feet below --
Told me the light was perfect here and so
The plants would thrive, just wait and see
How gracefully the flowers would bear wings.
I would see her when she was not there,
Then go blind, standing right beside her.
How could I begin to explain such things?
Soon enough the blossoms reached my sill,
A floor above her terrace flat. Too late
For her to see the wonder she had wrought
Or for me to tell her. She'd moved out.
I never dreamed these branches in full bloom
Would all but block the summer view below:
Garden, gardener and terrace door,
Casting a dappled shadow across my room.
I never knew that when November came
I would miss the butterflies so much
And see the world more clearly than before.

Hard Choices: George Black on Compromise and the Conservation Ethic

Emily Voigt — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:59:37 -0500

OnEarth articles editor George Black reads his essay "Time to Be Unfaithful to Old Faithful," and talks with Emily Voigt about controversy and compromise in modern environmentalism.

A Conversation with Poet Chard deNiord

Zachary Sussman — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 09:35:35 -0500

Chard deNiord recites his poems, "Tree of Wisdom" and "Behold, The Lord God Bird," talks with Zachary Sussman about enlightenment, and recounts the strange, sad tale of a bird beyond imagination.

Tree of Wisdom
I am taken in by its stand and breadth,
marveling at its brawn and reach of branches,
studying each leaf like the page of a sacred book,
embracing its trunk like a void.
I hear the prophecy of a lark in the density
of foliage: "The vision awaits its time;
hastens to the end." Until this time arrives,
I am content to sit and stare and climb.
I am compelled to bet my life on the fact
that this is the first work of revelation,
calling a tree tree, leaves leaves.
It is the good work of a scientist.
It is the hidden work of a common man.
I say its name like the bird who can't stop singing,
Ten Thousand Things In One, and then this prayer,
Om mani padme hum. The jewel is in the world.
I lie in the shade of its canopy
and listen to the genius above deny her name.
I turn its green to black in order to turn
it back again. I watch its fruit fall in the wind
like proofs for a law that only exists in the mind.
Like a well-stocked house it sustains me,
cleans my lungs with the distillation.
It is my home of transformation
where I remain and disappear.

Behold, The Lord God Bird
Hope is a bird that lives somewhere in a swamp,
unseen but there, like the tree that falls but needs
an ear to make a sound. The jizz of such
a thing is moot without the sighting of
a second birder. Everything we see
must strangely be stranger than what we imagine.
The flocks that fly through the sky of our dreams are hardly
as weird as the common sparrow, since she was spoken
and then translated. It's the words we want behind
the dream and the voice to say them, to make
them real and really strange, but cannot speak
for the length of our tongues. Be thankful, then, an angel
sings in the form of a bird that lived in memory's
overstory for sixty years. In the voice
of a clown at the top of a cypress. Kent! Kent!
she calls, then pauses for a while before resuming
her other song that echoes in our bones as if
they were trees in an ancient forest. Knock-knock!
Knock-knock! Only more and faster.

A Conversation With Poet Floyd Skloot

Zachary Sussman — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 21:40:54 -0600

Floyd Skloot recites his poems "Digging Zak's Grave" and "Bittersweet Nightshade," talks with Zachary Sussman about channeling Robert Frost, and describes how overcoming brain injury affected his writing and gave rise to a new appreciation of the natural world.

Digging Zak's Grave
These hands crusted with dark
red soil have reached back
seven million years in a stroke
of spade. They also touch
yesterdays fallen leaves,
the mulch of a dozen years
of fruits and vegetables,
and this afternoon's loss.
Time means nothing we can
grasp till it is converted
to memory. Now, drenched
in sweat, I am stained by
what remains of Columbia River
lavas that covered this hill
in Miocene times. If rain
and snow can do such slow
work on rock, they will have no
trouble with the body I am
about to consign to this hole.

Boston's River Man

Rachel Leventhal — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 08:49:42 -0600

Dan Driscoll spent 20 years restoring abused and forgotten corridors along Boston’s Charles River, creating habitat for wildlife and access for people. Each step was a lonely battle against short-sighted politicians, nimbyism and red tape. Now Dan’s about to do it all over again, this time with the Mystic River. Reporter Rachel Leventhal visits Dan in Boston to find out why.

Better to Have Loved and Lost?

Rick Bass — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 08:46:46 -0600

Rick Bass reads his essay about sharing the wilderness he loves with his young daughters. See the article here.

Searching for Farming's Future in Its Past

Rachel Leventhal — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 10:56:43 -0600

The Bobolink Dairy in Vernon New Jersey makes artisanal grass-fed cheese and wood-fired bread. That's plenty of work all by itself, but Jonathan and Nina White, Bobolink's owners, have a larger goal in mind: to reinvent pre-industrial agriculture for a post-industrial age. Journalist Rachel Leventhal spent two days at the Bobolink Dairy and produced this audio documentary. Read the Fall 2007 Living Green article about the dairy here.

Related: Bobolink Dairy website

The Promise (and Perils) of Nanotechnology

Alex Schmidt — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 14:05:58 -0600

Nanotechnology already is being used to reformulate many of the products we use. Yet despite concern among scientists about dangerous consequences, the federal government has taken a laissez faire approach – allowing companies to do, essentially, whatever they choose. Why is there such lax oversight of these exotic, new nanomaterials, and what does that mean for consumers? Reporter Alex Schmidt finds out. Read the related Fall 2007 feature story here.

Milking Wind, Instead of Cows

Daniel Hinerfeld — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:19:25 -0600

Like most of the dairy farmers in Lewis County, New York, Bill Burke was in debt. His plan for retirement was to sell off much of his dairy farm. That was until a businessman rolled into town with a new idea: Milk wind, not cows. Now Bill, his wife and many of the other farmers in Lewis County receive a minimum of $6,000 per year for every wind turbine on their properties. That’s changed things plenty. Read the related Summer 2007 feature story here.

Helping China Go Green

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 15:59:18 -0600

NRDC President Frances Beinecke just paid a visit to China, where NRDC has a rapidly growing team of lawyers and policy experts. Frances talks with Daniel Hinerfeld about China’s unprecedented growth, and the remarkable opportunities that exist to green the world’s most populous nation.

Kicking Consumerism

Laura Wright — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:03:19 -0600

Could you endure 30 days of consumer celibacy – one whole month without buying anything new (well, virtually anything)? Writer Wendee Holtcamp gave it a try, and it wasn’t easy. OnEarth Magazine senior editor Laura Wright talks with Wendee about the challenges and rewards of resisting our throwaway culture.

Razing Appalachia: Mountaintop Removal Mining's Terrible Cost

Erik Reece — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:10:17 -0600

Mountaintop removal mining is flattening the peaks of Appalachia and filling its rivers with toxic waste. The practice violates the Clean Water Act, but deft maneuvering by the Bush administration has enabled the mining industry to continue blowing up mountains and poisoning water ways. Erik Reece, a writer-in-residence at the University of Kentucky and author of Lost Mountain: A Year in the Vanishing Wilderness, talks with the NRDC’s Daniel Hinerfeld about the implications for Appalachia. The podcast includes an excerpt from a speech by NRDC Senior Attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

A Legal Eagle Lands: Peter Lehner, NRDC's New Executive Director

Emily Cousins — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:15:06 -0600

NRDC's new executive director Peter Lehner came to NRDC last November from the New York Attorney General's office, where he was the state's top environmental enforcer. He arrives at a pivotal moment, as Americans seem to be waking up to the reality of global warming. Peter talks with Emily Cousins about NRDC's new market transformation center, a changing energy future, and what individuals can do to steer the country in the right direction.

Inside the Diesel Death Zone

Daniel Hinerfeld — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 21:04:52 -0600

Following up on journalist Wade Graham’s feature in OnEarth’s Spring 2007 issue, Daniel Hinerfeld reports from the port city of Long Beach, California, on the price harbor communities pay for our reliance on cheap consumer goods from overseas.

Doing Good in the Second Life 'Metaverse'

Lisa Selin Davis — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:34:58 -0600

Could Second Life, the buzz-generating virtual hangout for millions of digerati and their avatars, help improve that other place called Real Life? OnEarth's Laura Wright talks with Lisa Selin Davis, who wrote about "the metaverse" in the Spring 2007 issue.

More Info:
» Second Life
» Synthetic Worlds Initiative at Indiana University

A Conversation with Bill McKibben, Founder of 'Step It Up' Global Warming Campaign

Bill McKibben — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:51:13 -0600

Frustrated by political gridlock in Washington, writer Bill McKibben and some fellow Vermonters decided they had to do something to draw attention to the shrinking window of opportunity we have to curb global warming. So they began a seat-of-the-pants campaign that has caught fire and is now expected to produce, on April 14, 2007, the largest global warming demonstrations ever seen. OnEarth's George Black talks with him about how Step It Up 2007 is building a mass movement -- fast.

Related:
» Step It Up 2007

Solve Global Warming!
» NRDC: Beat the Heat

Deadly Sonar: The U.S. Navy's Assault on Whales and Science

Daniel Hinerfeld — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 17:03:03 -0600

Sonar, which protects U.S. warships from enemy submarines, also kills whales and other marine mammals. Scientists are trying to figure out why, but the navy, which funds most of their research, seems to have other ideas. Daniel Hinerfeld tells the story, and talks with policy analyst Michael Jasny about scientific integrity.

Can a Montana Rancher Love a Grizzly?

Louisa Willcox — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 17:09:46 -0600

NRDC Wild Bears Project director Louisa Willcox and Montana rancher Todd Graham talk about balancing the interests of residents and ranchers with Yellowstone’s endangered grizzly bear population.

A Conversation With Poet Eamon Grennan

Zachary Sussman — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 10:22:46 -0600

Zachary Sussman interviews his former professor, Eamon Grennan, about Grennan’s poem “Drained Lake, Heron in Mud,” published in the Spring 2007 issue of OnEarth Magazine.

Drained Lake, Heron in Mud
When I saw the heron standing up to its spindleshins in mud
where the lake's deep water yesterday caught the light
and cracked it into a scatter of small flames, each fragment
of fractured mirror gripping a coloured shard of sky or leaf
or the glancing glimpse of a wing flapping over (taupe
for a goose, stony bluegrey a heron, various shades of white
the gulls), when I saw this statued heron, light burning its beak
to an aluminum triangle, a tapered hammerhead of glass,
it could have been the sign I was searching for: a solitary creature
dealing with this unsettled set of fresh conditions, not stuck
in the mud but surrounded by it, trying to draw something
to live by from it, some surprise live morsel that would make
survival possible. So I walked the bank and looked at it
from every angle, hoping to winkle a hint or two to help
shed any ray of light on things. But it just stood hunched,
ruffling once, twice, its shoulder feathers, the gleam of its beak
flashing back unreadable semaphore. I imagined its keen eyes'
amber, their fixed gaze, and that it was not at ease, but patient.

Poetry: Elton Glaser

Elton Glaser — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 14:42:09 -0600

Still winter, and on the local station
Two harvest tunes play out
Their peasant arguments in the dark
Chocolate of a cello, in the keyboard's
Rumble and pluck. So what
If the radio's late, four months
Behind the weather? I'm already
One season ahead, packing up
The corduroy and the watch cap,
The crow's foot jacket in black wool.
Already I'm sniffing the ravaged air
For an odor of new earth, vaguely vaginal,
Compost and loam where the seedlings
Sink their roots. Already I'm turning
Back from stars in their cold glow, and scouting
For sunslicks on the lawn, for the pout of tulips,
Long legs and a painted mouth.
If the trees, bent and bare, look like
A mind naked to its worst woes,
What's that to me? Moonmad before my time,
My mission's not to stammer down the streets
Like a salt truck, but to cast a spell
On the calendar, in risky chants, in syllables
Of slow elation, and call up on faith
The random primitives of spring, taking it all
As far as the eye can't see.
-- Elton Glaser

Interview with NRDC President Frances Beinecke

Phil Gutis — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 17:15:42 -0600

NRDC President Frances Beinecke speaks with NRDC communications director and OnEarth publisher Phil Gutis about her recent trip to the Prairie Festival in Salina, Kansas, to meet with local farmers, agricultural scientists and conservationists about how farmers in the heartland can help solve global warming.

Poetry: Eamon Grennan

Eamon Grennan — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 14:48:20 -0600

What a small many-greyed grapple of agitation
the mockingbird is, jittery on a thin branch
covered in berries but leafless, keeping one eye
and then the other on me, shifting its position,
unsettled by what my next move might be.

But at the opposite solstice this bird's songs
are the life of leaves in which he's an invisible singer,
sending melody after melody abroad, sweetening
space -- even after midnight -- with mimic music,
making the dark itself less dreadful, building

a nest of notes to feel at home in, though it must
be hard with so much to say, so many tunes
swirling through the honeycomb of its bones,
edging out of the white furnace of every feather
to swell its lone throat, setting its voice-box on fire.

The Little Mouse That Got in the Way

Daniel Hinerfeld — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 17:23:58 -0600

Andrew Wetzler, director of the Endangered Species Project at NRDC, speaks with Daniel Hinerfeld about the misuse of genetic data in determining which animal populations warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act. The Winter issue of OnEarth Magazine has an article by OnEarth contributing editor Sharon Levy called "The Little Mouse that Got in the Way," about a species of jumping mouse nearly doomed by bad genetic science when its western habitat came into the sights of developers. Wetzler also talks about the defeat of Rep. Richard Pombo (R-California), the outgoing chair of the House Resources Committee, who had attempted to dismantle the Endangered Species Act.

Interview with Green Investor Amy Domini

Daniel Hinerfeld — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 17:29:13 -0600

Green investor Amy Domini speaks with Daniel Hinerfeld about socially responsible investing. Domini, an innovator in the field, is co-founder of Domini Social Investments, a mutual fund company with more than $1.8 billion under management.

Drugging the Waters: A Conversation with Elizabeth Royte

Daniel Hinerfeld — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:16:19 -0600

What happens when the huge quantities of pharmaceuticals Americans ingest inevitably start finding their way into our rivers? NRDC's Daniel Hinerfeld and writer Elizabeth Royte talk about it.

Pesticides in the Home

Laura Wright — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:09:28 -0600

OnEarth's Laura Wright talks with NRDC's health program director, Linda Greer, about safer alternatives to using pesticides in our homes and on our pets

Casting a Spell

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 15:51:44 -0600

Daniel Hinerfeld discusses a new book, Casting a Spell: The Bamboo Fly Rod and the American Pursuit of Perfection, with author (and OnEarth Articles Editor) George Black.

Poetry: Maxine Kumin

Maxine Kumin — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 15:32:29 -0600

The Poem, the Poet:
Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Maxine Kumin is the author of Quit Monks or Die! (Story Line Press), a murder mystery about sensory-deprivation experiments on primates. Her 15th poetry collection, Jack and Other new Poems (Norton), includes works about man's relationship with the land.

Today
Apples are dropping
all over Joppa
a windfall, a bagful
for horses and cattle.–
Geese overhead
are baying like beagles.
The pears in the uphill
pasture lie yellow
a litter gone fallow
for stick pins of ground wasps.
The deer are in rut.
They race through the swales
and here on the marshy
spillway, a yearling
caught drinking, spies slantwise
two humans -- us, frozen
unbreathing, the same pair
who tracked him slobbering
apples today in
our Joppa back pasture.
-- Maxine Kumin

A Thirst We Can't Quench

Daniel Hinerfeld — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 15:18:44 -0600

Journalist Jacques Leslie speaks with NRDC's Daniel Hinerfeld about the threat of global water shortages.

Letter from Denmark: Interview with Frances Beinecke

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 14:16:51 -0600

Daniel Hinerfeld talks with NRDC President Frances Beinecke about her recent trip to Denmark to explore the success of wind energy.