Sisters of the Earth

by ANDERSON, LORRAINE

• ISBN13: 9781400033218
• ISBN10: 1400033217
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2003-12-09
• Publisher: Vintage

Summary

Sisters of the Earthis a stirring collection of women's writing on nature: Nature as healer. Nature as delight. Nature as mother and sister. Nature as victim. Nature as companion and reminder of what is wild in us all. Here, among more than a hundred poets and prose writers, are Diane Ackerman on the opium of sunsets; Ursula K. Le Guin envisioning an alternative world in which human beings are not estranged from their planet; and Julia Butterfly Hill on weathering a fierce storm in the redwood tree where she lived for more than two years. Here, too, are poems, essays, stories, and journal entries by Emily Dickinson, Alice Walker, Terry Tempest Williams, Willa Cather, Gretel Erlich, Adrienne Rich, and otherseach offering a vivid, eloquent response to the natural world. This second edition ofSisters of the Earthis fully revised and updated with a new preface and nearly fifty new pieces, including new contributions by Louise Erdrich, Pam Houston, Zora Neale Hurston, Starhawk, Joy Williams, Kathleen Norris, Rita Dove, and Barbara Kingsolver.

Author Biography

Lorraine Anderson is a freelance editor, writer, and teacher whose work focuses on encouraging a reciprocal relationship with nature. She served as lead editor of the college textbook <b>Literature and the Environment: A Reader on Nature and Culture</b> (1998) and collaborated with Thomas Edwards on the anthology <b>At Home on This Earth: Two Centuries of U.S. Women's Nature Writing</b> (2002). She holds a B.A in English from the University of Utah and an M.S. in creation sprituality from Naropa University, and lives in Davis, California.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Second Edition
Preface to the First Edition
Fire	p. 3
Beginning with a Place	p. 4
The Joy-Song of Nature	p. 7
The First Roots Creep Up	p. 10
Blossoming Pear Tree	p. 12
Breaklight	p. 14
Believing the Bond	p. 15
Luna	p. 19
The South Corner	p. 22
A White Heron	p. 23
Being Still	p. 36
Home to the Wilderness	p. 37
The Magnolia Tree	p. 45
A Breeze Swept Through	p. 48
The Many and the One	p. 50
I Will Lie Down	p. 52
Rolling Naked in the Morning Dew	p. 57
A Rinse in the River	p. 59
Sandstone Seduction	p. 62
River, O River	p. 65
Christmas in Driftwood Valley	p. 66
Jaunt from Nulato	p. 71
Visual Opium	p. 74
Why?	p. 77
Spring in the City	p. 78
Childhood on White Island	p. 84
Green Thoughts in a Green Shade	p. 88
My Mississippi Spring	p. 90
A Bouquet of Wild Flowers	p. 91
Glimpses of Salem	p. 94
On the Hills	p. 98
Trek to Blue Lake	p. 99
Night in the Country	p. 104
Love Poem	p. 108
Why Do You Keep Those Cats?	p. 113
Gabimichigami	p. 114
Looking for Abbey's Lion	p. 117
The Recognition	p. 121
The Source of a River	p. 123
Wilderness in the Blood	p. 127
Annunciation	p. 129
A Different Sympathy	p. 142
Night Song	p. 144
Becoming Feral	p. 146
The Safety Behind Me	p. 150
In the Open	p. 151
The Feel of the Outdoors	p. 153
In a Valley of Peace	p. 160
The Angry Lunch Cafe	p. 161
The Storm	p. 166
The Old One and the Wind	p. 169
My Help Is in the Mountain and Earth Cure Me	p. 173
The Ancient People	p. 174
Journal Entries	p. 186
Daystar	p. 191
The Bowl	p. 193
Lesson 1 and Lesson 2	p. 197
State of Grace	p. 198
Cured by Flowers	p. 201
Meadow Turf	p. 205
The Nature Cure - For the Body	p. 206
Longing	p. 210
The Balsam Fir	p. 212
The Back-Road	p. 222
My Desert Pond	p. 224
The Miracle of Renewal	p. 228
Depression in Winter	p. 231
Come into Animal Presence	p. 235
The Heart's Fox	p. 236
Happiness	p. 242
Sudden Knowing	p. 244
The Word	p. 246
To Build a Dam	p. 249
Two Creatures of the Long-Shadowed Forest	p. 252
The Fawn	p. 258
Feathered Philosophers	p. 259
A Sadness	p. 262
A Little Nomad	p. 264
A Wonder Tale	p. 270
Drama on a Wooden Fence	p. 280
Houseguest	p. 283
Dance of Giants	p. 288
Changing	p. 294
Among My Closet Friends	p. 295
The Old Cherry Tree	p. 300
In Praise of Trees	p. 310
The Man	p. 315
The Last Antelope	p. 317
The Hunt and Use	p. 327
Audubon	p. 332
Who?	p. 334
Earth's Green Mantle	p. 336
Bonelight	p. 342
Love Canal	p. 346
The Alegria Canyon and Afterword	p. 350
When Earth becomes an "It"	p. 358
The Hewers of Wood	p. 359
Fallen Forests	p. 365
Bitter Root Rituals, Stanzas I, II, and III	p. 368
Clearcut	p. 371
Contradictions: Tracking Poems, Part 18	p. 374
Spirit of Love	p. 379
Turning to Another Way	p. 380
Eve Revisited	p. 384
The Rainbow Bridge	p. 386
Kopis'taya (A Gathering of Spirits)	p. 392
Declaration of the Four Sacred Things	p. 394
Native Origin	p. 396
The Common Living Dirt	p. 400
What Holds the Water, What Holds the Light	p. 403
Amazing Grace	p. 408
Dynamics	p. 414
End of the Beginning	p. 416
Mind in the Waters	p. 423
May's Lion	p. 425
Demeter	p. 435
Acknowledgments	p. 437
Bibliography and Further Reading	p. 439
Index of Authors and Titles	p. 457
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.