Lichen
sticking to the grooves of tree bark. Pine needles surrounding a house embedded
in the woods. A pale, yellow flower grazing the finger of a young man leaving
for war. Imagining life as a tardigrade,
or “little water bear.” Bramble-scrawled oak trees. Burial mounds so natural
they seem part of the landscape.
Nature
and geography offer a wealth of images and metaphors for poetry, and poet Michelle Menting
drinks deeply from that source in her new collection, Leaves
Surface Like Skin. The 46 poems of the collection are filled with
nature’s images, but filled in a distinct way. Menting uses nature, geography,
landscape, and the seasons to probe and push against the human condition. This
is not so much nature poetry as it is nature poetry in the service of
understanding one’s self and the people surrounding you.
To
continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak
Poetry.
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