Thank you to Kimberley Roll for her sharing her January Limberlost eagle adventures in photographs. For our SANJO (Southern Adams Northern Jay Ouabache) Christmas Bird Count, we had 18 bald eagles tallied on the count on January 1 2020. In our SANJO CBC National Audubon Society circle, we now have five bald eagle nests and a sixth nest only a couple miles outside the circle. Gene Stratton-Porter would be amazed at the number of bald eagles and the patience of Kimberley to photograph them. Gene would be envious! Gene had to travel to northern Michigan to see bald eagles and was never able to photograph them. 

Juvenile bald eagle

Adult bald eagle. One of the Loblolly Marsh pair. 

Bald eagle by the Loblolly Creek. 

Juvenile bald eagle

Juvenile bald eagle

Bald eagles

Loblolly Marsh bald eagle pair

Juvenile bald eagle

Invitation to Rainbow Bottom

Smell the dank, dark soil
of the cracked river bottom

and enter nature's grasp, your
tromping boot soles sinking

into mud. See the flames of
autumn ivy spread near your path

beside the water's forced banks,
straightened, pooling in

memories of where it once was.
Savor the warmth of sun reaching

through enchanted branches 
and waking up creatures dulled

by coolness of night.
Find the caterpillar on a stem

and the birds in the branches. Listen
to the Brown Creeper as he climbs

and the low chatter of song sparrows
among red berries. Watch for the last

serenade of small frogs, for paths
that lead through growths

of lizard tails. Poke your finger
in the mouth of a false snapdragon

and lightly stroke the prickles
on a pudgy cucumber----baby hedgehog

of the plant world. Walk around
beaver-chewed trees

and a cavernous sycamore. Follow
your guide into the hollow

womb carved by floodwaters, into
darkness that suckles a cacophony

of DNA. Hold the slim green
song of a bush cicada

and the shadow of a clear weed.
Hold the song and the shadow--

hold them in Rainbow's Bend
till they become the flight

of a bald eagle
circling above the Wabash

on a wind river in the sky.


Collaborative Poem by Shari Wagner's 10-12-19 workshop.
"Writing Poems at Ceylon Covered Bridge and Rainbow Bottom."

Beaver chewed tree.

A touch of autumn.

Caterpillar

Wild cucumber

Wabash River at Rainbow Bottom

Song sparrow by Kimberley Roll.

Bald eagle in flight by Kimberley Roll. 

Guide naturalist Curt Burnette at one of the giant sycamore trees in Rainbow Bottom. 

Ceylon Covered Bridge. Poetry group is exploring the area with a morning hike on October 12 2019. 

Poetry at the Limberlost

During 2017 and again in 2019, I had the privilege of offering poetry workshops inspired by the ecology and history of the Limberlost. These workshops were sponsored by Arts in the Parks and Historic Sites, a program of the Indiana Arts commission. Much of workshops' success was do to the promotion efforts of Friends of the Limberlost and to the expertise of Curt Burnette, Bill Hubbard, and Jeanne Akins, staff members who served as guides as participants visited the Cabin or walked a trail. Each workshop included the discussion of prompts and models and individual and collaborative writing activities. By scrolling backward, you can read some of the poems from these workshops.

In preparing for workshops, I spent time reading Gene Stratton-Porter's nonfiction books. I was amazed by what she observed in nature through her patience and attentiveness. A story that's particularly special to me is her account of seeing what may have been the last known passenger pigeon. Until reading about his experience, I had assumed (like most people) that the last living passenger pigeon was "Martha," a caged bird on exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo. What follows is a persona poem inspired by an account in Tales You Won't Believe. 

Gene Stratton-Porter Identifies the Last Known Passenger Pigeon

"Martha, the Passenger Pigeon, passed away on September 1, 1914, in the Cincinnati Zoo. She was believed to be the last living individual of her species after two male companions had died in the same zoo in 1910. Martha was a celebrity at the zoo, attracting long lines of visitors."
                                                                                   ----Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

I saw him three miles west of the Limberlost
with my camera set to film the brooding hen goldfinch.
A whistling of wings and then that singular bird
settled on the telephone wire above me, I recognized
his bright red beak and feet, hue of blue-gray feathers,
distinctive See? See? As a farm girl, I heard that call
when flocks thick as storm clouds eclipsed the sun.
Fervent wings rumbled in ceaseless thunder. Roosting
birds broke limbs and toppled trees. See? See?
they whimpered in our neighbor's yard---dozens
clubbed and captured, with broken legs, backs,
and wings, soon to be dropped into the pot-pie kettle.
See? See? See? this one cried, cocking his head
and looking in every direction. But by then, Martha
had been shipped to the Smithsonian inside a block
of ice. Among Objects of Wonder she was paired
with an Ectopistes migratorius shot years before she
hatched. If I could have shifted my camera, then
you could see for yourself how the last passenger pigeon
was nameless and perched by himself on a wire.
How iridescent shone the bronze patches on his throat
with nothing but the sun behind him.

By Shari Wagner
Indiana Poet Laureate 2016-2017   

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