Bestselling food writer Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma), calls Sydney Lea “as fine a companion on the page as American writing about nature has to offer.” Indeed, Lea is widely regarded as the Robert Frost of his generation.
Lea visits this Tuesday to share the lectern with poet Marie Howe.
More about their visit here: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/howe_lea13.html
Much of Lea's poetry is inspired by the natural world and rural Vermont settings. Here's an example, "Cooking by Waters: An Non-Elegy," which appears on his website. The poem was first published in the Hudson Review, Autumn 2008.
The birch’s skin curls up like an ancient
letter.
The sweet smoke makes my breathing
harder.
On a streamside fir three goldfinches
teeter.
Late sun makes a tumult along their
feathers.
In an hour the hermit thrush will have
begun.
I accept the bittersweet gift of the
weather in fall.
The air’s so clear the only haze is
inward.
How did I learn these names and calls?
I can’t be sure. They simply gathered.
Read more of the poem here: http://sydneylea.net (click on "Sampler").
