Clear Creek: Toward a Natural Philosophy

by Erik Reece

Acclaimed author Erik Reece spends a year beside a rural Kentucky stream, in close observation of the natural world’s cycles, revelations, and redemptions.

A critic once wrote that Rebecca West’s Black Lamb and Grey Falcon was about two Yugoslavia and everything else. Something similar might be said about Clear Creek . In this boundary-defying work, Erik Reece spends a year beside the stream in his rural Kentucky homeplace, tracking the movements of the seasons, the animals, and the thoughts passing through his mind. Clear Creek is a series of vignettes that calls us out of our frenzied, digitized world to a slower, more contemplative way of being. Reece’s subjects range from solitude and solidarity to the intricacies of forest communities, and from the genius of songwriter Tom T. Hall to reforestation projects on abandoned strip mines. A work of close observation and carefully grounded insights, Clear Creek articulates a nature-based philosophy for pondering humanity’s current plight.

279 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2023

Reviews

[Margaret Dulaney]

R.W. Emerson in his essay, The Method of Nature writes, "The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship." Reece is a studied lover of nature and has earned the right to teach the rest of us through his love of the deciduous woods, and clear creeks of rural Kentucky. This book is a gem.