Field Notes for the Alpine Tundra

by Elena Johnson

In 2008, Elena Johnson was invited to be the writer-in-residence at a remote ecology research station in the Yukon’s Ruby Range mountains. For several weeks she lived in the alpine tundra, working alongside a team of biologists whose research interests ranged from plants to marmots and ptarmigan. Field Notes for the Alpine Tundra is the result of that residency, evidence that “Each landscape leaves its mark– / a scratch at the heart”. Employing a range of poetic techniques (from the lyric to maps, charts and lists), Johnson’s poems are immersed in the remoteness of their environment, where the weather is “a cup over the valley”, “nights are mostly sunset” and people are “the tallest objects / bent by the wind”. Johnson observes how both the routine (laundry, camp life) and the minute (lichen, flowers, contour lines) take on new meaning in the vast wilderness of the tundra, how the creek “carries the sound of rain even in sunshine” and how the fox, encountered, “fits no guidebook description”. Like caribou silently appearing “antlers-first / from behind a ridge”, Johnson’s poems reward the reader with a mixture of surprise and recognition.

Genres: Poetry

44 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2015

Reviews

[Linor David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this little book of poetry. Elena is a friend so it was doubly nice to read this book... I loved hearing her sense of humour and her attention to the little details.
This book is so evocative of those moments in nature where you just get to be really present. All the observations, and thoughts are packed into these very compact poems. They are both clever and lovely. They take you through the landscapes and leave you with little smiles at the end of it.

I particularly enjoyed her descriptions of the camp, the sound of rain on the tent, and flapping doors, and duct taped pants. It is fun to read poetry of the mundane, somehow rendered sophisticated by its inclusion in a poetry book.

[M.W.P.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mountain List


The mountain lonely with sparrows.
No sheep, no bear.
A few spruce scraggle the bottoms of slopes.
Three ptarmigans brood on this ridge.

* * *

Weather


Rain patters on the "roof" this morning;
I don't despair. The afternoon
could be a vestibule of sun or snow.

The weather a cup over the valley. The creek
carries the sound of rain even in sunshine.

From inside the cook-tent, always rain
or not-rain, stream of not-stream.
When the coffee is boiling we don't hear the sky.


* * *

Alone at the Base


The 'door' of the cook-tent
unzipped. It blows open,
blows closed.

The other tents
flap, flap, flap. No one
is ever coming back.

* * *

Silent for the Dry Season


So little noise here; sound
becomes a feeling. My own blood
a humming constant.

I sit by a rock-edged stream bed, silent
for the dry season.

In the distance, Pika Creek
hisses like rain.

The mist slows.

Up to the western ridgetop
a slight whisper of motion,

like the ssshhhh
of breeze through treetops,

in this place where there are no trees.

* * *

Research Station, Unmapped


A cluster of tents
on the creek bed of June.
Wooden platforms over stones,
no imprints on lichen or moss.
In autumn the camp
takes flight.

* * *

Photographs


Even with twenty-two hours
of daylight. Flash or no flash,
there's not enough time,
not enough light.

Pale yellow of saxifrage flowers
brightens to marigold,
bleaches white.

I lean the camera
closer to the talus
but the lichens
disappear and disappear.

[Vee Ronald · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tumble of visuals and an upswell of impressions.

Field Notes for the Arctic Tundra - are they for the tundra itself, or the "scratch at the heart" that the landscape has left on those who dwell there, ever so slightly? And am I, now, one of those dwellers?

I enjoyed reading this little collection. I only wish there was more than could fit into a few spare minutes.

[TayTay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elena Johnsons poetry does an amazing job at bringing the reader almost to the tundra themselves, sharing the vastness, and loneliness of it. She's incredibly descriptive, and I really enjoyed quite a few poems from this collection.

[Pierre-Luc Landry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and beautiful and weird and perfect.

[Moe Nadeau · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful way to merge science and poetry. So unique and powerful.

[Lucy Harper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book for class - it’s really short and really amazing !!