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A Fine Canopy
Alison Swan’s collection of poems, A Fine Canopy , illustrates how the natural world envelops and encloses us with so many beautiful crowns of leaves, the ubiquitous blue sky, our luminous moon, and snow. So much snow. An ecopoet whose writing shows her advocacy for natural resources, in this collection Swan calls the reader to witness, appreciate, and sustain this world before it becomes too late.
These poems were written out of an impulse to track down wisdom in the open air, outside of the noisy world of cars and commerce. Swan seeks insight on shores and in scraps of woods and fields—especially on four particular Michigan’s upper and lower, Florida, and Washington state’s Olympic—and also inside motherhood, which might be the wildest place of all. These are poems about the interconnection of all things, and "knowing things we cannot see." A journey through seasons with a soundtrack of birdsong, Swan’s words are incredibly sensory. The reader is made to feel the weight of muddy jeans, the jolt at the tug of a dog’s leash, and to see the bright flash of a cardinal’s red plumage. Swan’s poems remind us that although we all want to make a mark on our world, the smaller the stepping into fresh snow, dashing through forests atop dry leaves, laying wet bodies on warm concrete. These quiet interactions with places are as hopeful as they are harmless.
Without necessarily tackling the topics head-on, A Fine Canopy evokes the devastation of climate change and the destruction of natural resources. This book engages deeply with the other-than-human to express and investigate alarm, dismay, anger, admiration, adoration in what feels like the end of the world unless we begin to think outside the box. These poems will carry weight with all readers of poetry, especially those who are interested in ecopoetry and connecting with the world around them.
These poems were written out of an impulse to track down wisdom in the open air, outside of the noisy world of cars and commerce. Swan seeks insight on shores and in scraps of woods and fields—especially on four particular Michigan’s upper and lower, Florida, and Washington state’s Olympic—and also inside motherhood, which might be the wildest place of all. These are poems about the interconnection of all things, and "knowing things we cannot see." A journey through seasons with a soundtrack of birdsong, Swan’s words are incredibly sensory. The reader is made to feel the weight of muddy jeans, the jolt at the tug of a dog’s leash, and to see the bright flash of a cardinal’s red plumage. Swan’s poems remind us that although we all want to make a mark on our world, the smaller the stepping into fresh snow, dashing through forests atop dry leaves, laying wet bodies on warm concrete. These quiet interactions with places are as hopeful as they are harmless.
Without necessarily tackling the topics head-on, A Fine Canopy evokes the devastation of climate change and the destruction of natural resources. This book engages deeply with the other-than-human to express and investigate alarm, dismay, anger, admiration, adoration in what feels like the end of the world unless we begin to think outside the box. These poems will carry weight with all readers of poetry, especially those who are interested in ecopoetry and connecting with the world around them.
- GenresPoetry
104 pages, Paperback
Published October 6, 2020
34 people want to read
About the author
Alison Swan
10 books1 followerLibrarian's note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 18, 2020
A gorgeous book of poems. I recorded a conversation for Michigan Public Radio about this book, and will post that link once the story runs. But here are my notes and talking points for that conversation:
In 2002 Alison Swan and her husband, David, were award the Petoskey Award as Michigan Environmentalists of the year for their work in protecting the dunes at Saugatuck Dunes State Park. The prize was completely deserved. As most of us realize, that kind of work is all-consuming. Letters, meetings, trips to Lansing. All the things that must be done to work for the environment. All of it volunteer, unpaid, and often thankless. Often being publically attacked by highly paid representatives of the special interests.
But through all of that, and before and since, Alison Swan has been primarily a poet, quietly working away at her own work, diligently trying to understand her position in the world. There are poems in this new collection, A Fine Canopy, that touch on those dunes, on southeast Michigan, on the upper peninsula –
In maple and cedar woods
bounded by Superior
and the Huron Mountains,
a mesh of leaves
and pure cumulus
form a piebald mirror.
But there are also poems here that touch on the Pacific Northwest and southern Florida. There’s also a wonderful longish sequence of different voices Swan found in 19th century journals from Michigan citizens. She forms her poems out of those old worlds.
But she always returns to her long gaze into the natural world. Unsparing yet unafraid. Knowing that the canopy she finds there will protect and move her imagination in unexpected ways. Here’s a short poem called “Outside” that’s typical of what she does:
Snowplows pass on the road
She can feel them in her bones
like the vibration of the furnace
A ship’s engine in the ship
of her house chugging through
swells so far out to the sea there are
goddesses and nothing whatsoever
to fear from the dark
In 2002 Alison Swan and her husband, David, were award the Petoskey Award as Michigan Environmentalists of the year for their work in protecting the dunes at Saugatuck Dunes State Park. The prize was completely deserved. As most of us realize, that kind of work is all-consuming. Letters, meetings, trips to Lansing. All the things that must be done to work for the environment. All of it volunteer, unpaid, and often thankless. Often being publically attacked by highly paid representatives of the special interests.
But through all of that, and before and since, Alison Swan has been primarily a poet, quietly working away at her own work, diligently trying to understand her position in the world. There are poems in this new collection, A Fine Canopy, that touch on those dunes, on southeast Michigan, on the upper peninsula –
In maple and cedar woods
bounded by Superior
and the Huron Mountains,
a mesh of leaves
and pure cumulus
form a piebald mirror.
But there are also poems here that touch on the Pacific Northwest and southern Florida. There’s also a wonderful longish sequence of different voices Swan found in 19th century journals from Michigan citizens. She forms her poems out of those old worlds.
But she always returns to her long gaze into the natural world. Unsparing yet unafraid. Knowing that the canopy she finds there will protect and move her imagination in unexpected ways. Here’s a short poem called “Outside” that’s typical of what she does:
Snowplows pass on the road
She can feel them in her bones
like the vibration of the furnace
A ship’s engine in the ship
of her house chugging through
swells so far out to the sea there are
goddesses and nothing whatsoever
to fear from the dark
October 7, 2024
Wonderful and thought-provoking Michigan imagery
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews