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Numinosity: A New England Forester's Search for the Ineffable
There are moments in our lives where a door of awareness opens, if only for a brief second. These are the moments that are simply impossible to express, but moments that have captured us for all time.
Join a New England forester on a fifty-year quest for something larger than all of us. Here are a series of essays, stories and poems emerging from the natural world, but always connected to a life that has had its common share of illumination and darkness, hope and despair, love and loss, ambition and failure, resistance and acceptance, anger and peace. Marking timber for harvest becomes a meditation on the unique connection between responsibility to the natural world and awareness of self and others. A shadow in the woods, a voice on the wind opens up the mystery inherent in all the wisdom traditions. The impact of a sudden death on a logging crew lingers for decades, demanding a resolution between hubris and fate. The crushing retreat of the United States from climate science and advocacy manifests in a longing for the precise language of another time when we were closer to the natural cycles of life.
Join a New England forester on a fifty-year quest for something larger than all of us. Here are a series of essays, stories and poems emerging from the natural world, but always connected to a life that has had its common share of illumination and darkness, hope and despair, love and loss, ambition and failure, resistance and acceptance, anger and peace. Marking timber for harvest becomes a meditation on the unique connection between responsibility to the natural world and awareness of self and others. A shadow in the woods, a voice on the wind opens up the mystery inherent in all the wisdom traditions. The impact of a sudden death on a logging crew lingers for decades, demanding a resolution between hubris and fate. The crushing retreat of the United States from climate science and advocacy manifests in a longing for the precise language of another time when we were closer to the natural cycles of life.
68 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 9, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 21, 2026
With a nod to another origin story, Bob Perschel writes that it was biting into an apple, plucked from a tree in his grandfather’s orchard, that defined his world view: “The life of that tree flowed through me and…I was never to look at the world in quite the same way again.”
His new book, “Numinosity,” a collection of charming short essays and crisp, evocative poems, delves into his personal, and our collective, connection to trees, forests, and nature. This is a book filled with respect and affection for nature and concern that we act responsibly.
I especially like the New England Triptych, three poems reflecting on long held myths about forest denizens.
Leave this book by the chair near your woodstove or the one on your screened-in porch to enjoy in a moment of quiet.
His new book, “Numinosity,” a collection of charming short essays and crisp, evocative poems, delves into his personal, and our collective, connection to trees, forests, and nature. This is a book filled with respect and affection for nature and concern that we act responsibly.
I especially like the New England Triptych, three poems reflecting on long held myths about forest denizens.
Leave this book by the chair near your woodstove or the one on your screened-in porch to enjoy in a moment of quiet.
May 13, 2026
The musings, stories and wisdom of a man who spent thousands of hours in the company of trees, this little book is a gem. Without being preachy or overly scientific, this mixture of poetry and prose speaks directly to the soul. It reminds us that each of us has a unique and intimate relationship with what nature offers us. A delicacy for anyone who is passionate about nature and the environment.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews