Hill-Stead's Nature Blog

What a wonderful night. Outstanding poets of national renown, stimulating music, a famous garden of noteworthy design, a hour of natural beauty.  What riches we enjoyed.

Our poets were Robert Hass, Pulitzer Prize winning poet, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in poetry, William Carlos Williams award-winner.  His wife, Brenda Hillman shared the podium.  She is the author of seven collections of poetry and another winner of the William Carlos Williams prize. She is also a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and a National Book Award finalist.  We were privileged to have them both.

From our poets: 

White Fir Description

14 cones of fitted pods with meso-tight rings of fitted pods, boy bronzes rising
somewhat
-The usual turkey-foot top but with toes splayed 43″, 47″ “49″
-At no place does the sun show through with more politeness than in 8-inch
 rhombuses criss-crossed with daggerdowns, & the “wrestle” “with
my heart” side
-Each needle an inch-and-a-half long more profuse toward manzanita
than near Meeks Bay, more profane toward sound of scrub jay stopping
then doubling
-Changeoid quiver-cripple wind starts up & lets you record: how often you
fought a fear, half-panic laced with ennui as
-Blond oxygen hovers over the tree, in the direness of safety-an ethics that
would want to want the other to get better

Brenda Hillman

From Robert Hass:

I.
The first long shadows in the fields
Are like mortal difficulty.
The first birdsong is not like that at all.

2.
The light in summer is very young and wholly unsupervised.
No one has made it sit down to breakfast.
It’s the first one up, the first one out.

3.
Because he has opened his eyes, he must be light
And she, sleeping beside him, must be the visible,
One ringlet of hair curled about her ear.
Into which he whispers, “Wake up!”
“Wake up!” he whispers.

Tonight as we relished the viruosity and spirit-enriching talents of our poetic guests, we enjoyed some nature. While our poets shared their work with us, Mother Nature shared hers as she is wont to do whether or not we make ourselves aware. Here is a list of what I was able to percieve:

American Robin
Eastern Pheobe
Chimney Swift (can they be nesting in the Congregational, Episcopal, Catholic churches?)
Chipping Sparrow
Northern Flicker
Scarlet Tanager
Chickadee
House Sparrow
Red-Bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Barn Swallow
Cedar Waxwing
Red-Tailed Hawk
Tree Swallow
Goldfinch
Catbird
Song Sparrow
Cardinal
Blue Jay
European Starling
Eastern Bluebird
Great-Crested Flycatcher
Grackle
Brown-Headed Cowbird
Wood Thrush
Baltimore Oriole
Mourning Dove
Red-Eyed Vireo
Warbling Vireo
House Finch

Other Wildlife:
Grey Tree Frog
Snowy Tree-Cricket
Bats (unlikely to be northern bats)
Fireflies (on my pants)
Sugar Ants
American Toad
Crane Fly
Mosquito (need I point this out?)

Domestic Species:
Shetland Sheep

30 birds, 8 Other Species, 1 Charmingly Domestic Species

Join us next time, two weeks hence, (6/24) as we thrill to Baron Wormser(among other notable things Poet Laureate of Maine)  and the Connecticut Poetry Circuit Winners.

See You on the Trails and at our Poetry and Music Festival.

 Diane Tucker, Estate Naturalist