Laurence Musgrove: In the Cockpit
I like to imagine that every morning
Before I get up, the pilot of my plane
Runs through the standard checklist,
Making sure the gauges and switches
Are set and secure for an easy takeoff
Cristen Hemingway Jaynes: Yurok Tribe Becomes First to Steward Land with National Park Service
California’s Yurok Tribe had 90 percent of its territory stolen during the mid-1800s gold rush. Now, it will be getting a piece of its land back that serves as a gateway to Redwood state and national parks.
Laure-Anne Bosselaar: Early Morning Considerations After a Night of Rain
Good morning, welcome, new Thursday. I arc
the blankets away. The dog sheds gladness all
around me as war news shrapnels out of NPR.
Richard Heinberg: Why AI Must Be Stopped Now
The promise of AI is eclipsed by its perils, which include our own annihilation.
Video: Wendell Berry reads his poem “The Peace of Wild Things”
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
IRENE LYLA LEE: The Future Is Feral—and Climate Resilient
To produce food in the face of climate change, we may need to learn from so-called weeds.
Video: How to Cultivate a Healthy Gut Microbiome with Food
Food for gut health: An unhealthy intestinal biome is a major contributor to heart disease and other illnesses.
Jianqing Zheng: The Dog Years of Reeducation (excerpt)
When the sampan glides to shore, the bird lands back on the shoulder of the rowing girl while lotus leaves whisper in the morning sunshine.
Tony Gloeggler: Honestly
I’ll place a bowl of Cheez-Its
in her lap, drop a Milk Dud
or Jordan Almond, spoon melon
into her mouth.
Theodore Roethke: The Waking
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
Emily Suzanne Carlson: Mother of Pearl
oysters don’t ignore
the “irritant,” they tend to it,
letting it shimmer
Wally Swist: Three Poems for Tevis
I discover what remains
is the light that shines through
Brenna R. Hassett: The Evolution of the Human Pair Bond
Despite our very human flair for variety and adaptation, most societies around the world set a pair-bonded couple at the heart of how their members reproduce.
