Landward
with Catherine Young
Thursdays around 8:25AM
Catherine Young is a performing artist and writer whose life is devoted to protecting water. Trained in fluvial geomorphology, Catherine worked as a national park ranger, naturalist, educator, farmer, and mother before completing her MFA in creative writing in British Columbia. Her prose and poetry has been nominated for Pushcart Prize and Best American Essays and is published internationally and nationally, including in the anthologies The Driftless Reader and Contours. She is the author of the memoir of place, Black Diamonds: A Childhood Colored by Coal (Torrey House Press)and the ecopoetry collection Geosmin (Water’s Edge Press, Midwest Book Awards Silver Medal).
Rooted in farm life, Catherine lives with her family in Wisconsin’s Driftless bioregion. Her podcasts and writings can be found at: www.catherineyoungwriter.com/
January 9th, 2025
THE FARM by Minnesota Poet Laureate, Joyce Sutphen, from her collection Carrying Water to the Field. Reminiscent of a psalm, the farm father is a world maker and provider parting the snowy sea.
January 2nd, 2025
This story about marking time is excerpted from Tracing Time: Seasons of Rock Art on the Colorado Plateau by Craig Childs, published in 2022 by Torrey House Press.
December 26th, 2024
THE SHORTEST DAYS by Minnesota Poet Laureate, Joyce Sutphen, from her collection Carrying Water to the Field. This poem for the time of the winter solstice anticipates the day’s end and night descending, while the people rise to meet it.
WHAT REMAINS by Catherine Young holds the silvery memories of late December. The poem is from her ecopoetry collection Geosmin published in 2022 by Water’s Edge Press.
December 14th, 2023
The Time of Anise is from the memoir of place Black Diamonds: A Childhood Colored by Coal by Catherine Young published in 2023 by Torrey House Press. The memoir looks back on childhood in a Pennsylvania coal mining Valley, and the Time of Anise remembers holiday baking in the early 1960s.
December 12th, 2024
The Time of Anise is from the memoir of place Black Diamonds: A Childhood Colored by Coal by Catherine Young published in 2023 by Torrey House Press. The memoir looks back on childhood in a Pennsylvania coal mining Valley, and the Time of Anise remembers holiday baking in the early 1960s.
December 5th, 2024
OLD FEY AUTUMN SIGHS by Wisconsin poet Donna Carnes is a villanelle that imagines a king of autumn letting go of his reign to the oncoming queen of winter.
November 28th, 2024
AUTUMN SUNRISE by Wisconsin poet Jan Wellik captures the gold of November.
November 21st, 2024
REPLENISH by Catherine Young reimagines our deep connection to water in our rural landscapes 50 years into the future. REPLENISH is from the Wormfarm Institute 2023 zine, Imagine.
November 14th, 2024
As the colors drain from the Wisconsin rural landscape, the last garden harvest brings the colors indoors until the house on the wintering land becomes its own small sun. AS WE WAIT FOR WINTER by Catherine Young is from her collection Geosmin published in 2022 by Water’s Edge Press.
November 7th, 2024
THE LOST PLEIAD by Wisconsin poet Donna Carnes is based on the universal myths about the Seven Sisters (Pleiades) brilliant star cluster seen in November, used to guide sailors home.
October 31st, 2024
So many of us love wearing costumes for performances, and as children many of us became something other than what we were. HALLOWEEN by Catherine Young was published in Bramble in 2022.
October 24th, 2024
In an abecedarian poem, the first letter of each new line spells the alphabet. THE RIPENING ABECEDARIAN by Catherine Young is from her collection Geosmin published in 2022 by Water’s Edge Press.
October 17th, 2024
CIDER APPLES by Catherine Young is a poem of compounded sound describing October apples on an abandoned tree. It was published in Barstow & Grand in 2022.
October 10th, 2024
APPLE SEASON by Minnesota Poet Laureate, Joyce Sutphen, from her collection Carrying Water to the Field. The poet moves us from tree to kitchen to apple-rich foods with the work of her mother and grandmother.
October 3rd, 2024
In OCTOBER by Robert Frost, the poet pleads with October to go slow. OCTOBER is in the public domain.
September 25th, 2024
CONFLAGRATION INVOCATION is by Wisconsin poet Karen Ostrov. While watching over her toddler grandson in Oregon during the September 2020 wildfires and Covid 19 restrictions, the poet considers Rosh Hashanah 5781 and the binding of Isaac along with her role as a grandmother, sheltering her grandson for future generations.
September 19th, 2024
Wisconfluence is a series of four poems created for the MidWay Atlas, a seven-state Midwest artist project in 2022. WATER MEMORY is the contribution of Wisconsin Poet Laureate Laureate Kimberly Blaeser.
September 12th, 2024
As the seasons change, so do the sounds of insects until they are gone. SEPTEMBER MIDNIGHT by Sara Teasdale captures the change.
September 5th, 2024
AUTUMN AGAIN by Minnesota Poet Laureate, Joyce Sutphen, is from her collection Carrying Water to the Field.
August 29th, 2024
Minnesota Poet Laureate Joyce Sutphen combs the road in search of the elusive agates in her poem IN QUEST OF AGATES from her collection Carrying Water to the Field.
August 22nd, 2024
Dioramas is from the memoir Black Diamonds: A Childhood Colored by Coal by Catherine Young, published in 2023 by Torrey House Press. The memoir looks back on childhood in a Pennsylvania coal mining valley, and Dioramas tells of the strange underground exhibit, a coal mine with mannequins.
August 15th, 2024
EFFIGY HAND is an ekphrastic poem created in response to the image of a mica carving from the Hopewell culture. The poem by Catherine Young was published by the Ekphrastic Review in 2022.
August 8th, 2024
In the poem RECOLLECTION, the poet Catherine Young both remembers and collects inside a small-town antique store. The poem is from the ecopoetry collection Geosmin published by Water’s Edge Press.
August 1st, 2024
With summer come the memories of other summers, layered on, including what is here and what is now gone. BECAUSE OF THE SUN by Minnesota Poet Laureate, Joyce Sutphen, is from her collection Carrying Water to the Field.
July 25th, 2024
Prairie restoration, the Grim Reaper, mentors, and a rusty scythe all compound the images in this poem by Tom Boswell MEDITATION WHILE CUTTING BUCKWHEAT from the poetry collection Heart on a String.