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/
The Oat Binder June 16, 2022
Catherine reads a farm poem, THE OAT BINDER by Minnesota poet Joyce Sutphen from her collection Carrying Water to the Field.
From a Country Overlooked June 9, 2022
Catherine Young reads the poem FROM A COUNTRY OVERLOOKED by Tom Hennen from Darkness Sticks to Everything: Collected and New Poems
Poems Appear June 2, 2022
A dreamer has to choose to follow Muse or reality. POEMS APPEAR by Catherine Young is from her poetry collection Geosmin.
Passerine May 26, 2022
The poet becomes a swallow in the afterlife. The poem PASSERINE by Catherine Young is from her poetry collection Geosmin.
Harrow and What Every Girl Wants May 19, 2022
Catherine reads 2 farm poems, HARROW and WHAT EVERY GIRL WANTS, from Minnesota poet Joyce Sutphen’s collection Carrying Water to the Field.
When Freshly Painted May 12, 2022
Catherine reads her farm love poem WHEN FRESHLY PAINTED from her poetry collection Geosmin.
Some Glad Morning Thursday May 5, 2022
Catherine reads the spring poem SOME GLAD MORNING from Joyce Sutphen’s collection, Carrying Water to the Field.
BY THE CREEK BANK April 28, 2022
Catherine reads the poem BY THE CREEK BANK by Tom Hennen from Darkness Sticks to Everything: Collected and New Poems.
TIGHTROPE April 21, 2022
Recalling our role in averting tragedy is like walking a tightrope. The poem TIGHTROPE by Catherine Young is from her poetry collection Geosmin.
VERDANCY & HYMENOPTERA: WASPS I April 14, 2022
Catherine Young reads 2 poems from her collection Geosmin.
Many colors of green refill the April landscape in VERDANCY.
Hornets build homes in HYMENOPTERA: WASPS I.
ELOQUENCE ENGRAVED IN STONE April 7, 2022
ELOQUENCE ENGRAVED IN STONE by Catherine Young, from her poetry collection Geosmin uses an epigraph from Tony Hoagland’s poetry to describe Driftless Region geology.
SHEPHERD OF TREES March 31, 2022
SHEPHERD OF TREES by Catherine Young is from her poetry collection Geosmin.
A caretaker asks trees what they need.
PANORAMIC March 24, 2022
Panoramic by Catherine Young is from her poetry collection Geosmin. Itdescribes a lifetime as a landscape.
COMPOST & REVOLUTION March 17, 2022
COMPOST and REVOLUTION by Catherine Young are are two views of the cycle of life on a farm from her poetry collection Geosmin.
VOLUTE March 10, 2022
VOLUTE by Catherine Young is from her poetry collection Geosmin.
In VOLUTE, a fossil tells people how everything in the world curls – whether we can see it or not.
WOMEN TENDING MARCH 3, 2022
WOMEN TENDING by Catherine Young from her poetry collection Geosmin.
WOMEN TENDING moves through time and is told in 3 voices:
From women tending house and home; the women making bricks & pottery for home; the women who make art —those women who tend towards what calls us to create.
The poem celebrates the gifts women have given to the world throughout history in March– Women’s History Month.
AUBADE FOR THE NEVER-ENDING FLOW OF MILK February 24, 2022
AUBADE FOR THE NEVER-ENDING FLOW OF MILK by Catherine Young from her poetry collection Geosmin.
An aubade is a poem that is written for dawn, a poem that greets the morning, lamenting the end of night when lovers must part. On a farm, aubade can take quite a different meaning after a long night tending the birth of livestock and readying for the day.
IN FEBRUARY IT BEGINS & MAPLE SYRUPING February 17, 2022
IN FEBRUARY IT BEGINS and MAPLE SYRUPING by Catherine Young are from her poetry collection Geosmin.
2 poems for the spring season of change and the sweetness we crave
LICHEN & LATE WINTER February 10, 2022
LICHEN and LATE WINTER by Catherine Young are from her poetry collection Geosmin.
LICHEN decorates the bark like a living gift wrapping, one that’s hard to put in the woodstove.
LATE WINTER in Wisconsin is the difficult time of freeze and thaw; an anxious dance. We want the melt, but not all at once!
GEOSMIN February 3, 2022
Geosmin by Catherine Young is the title poem from her poetry collection Geosmin.
Geosmin is an ode to the scent of soil.
JANUARY BRINK January 27, 2022
JANUARY BRINK by Catherine Young is from her poetry collection Geosmin.
There are people who love summer as a time of gathering outdoors, but some love snowy winter even more. January is clean and spare, and the snow and ice catches the most beautiful light. January is an edge; a brink.
MAPPING THE EMPTY LOT January 20, 2022
MAPPING THE EMPTY LOT by Catherine Young is from her poetry collection Geosmin.
The narrator in this poem visits a childhood house after many years and finds it a gap in the city block where it had stood.
STONE CIRCLE January 13, 2022
STONE CIRCLE by Catherine Young from her poetry collection Geosmin.
From the perspective of geologic time, stone is always in motion. Glass is a slow liquid that pools at the bottoms of cathedral windows. Stone Circle was inspired by a lively and colorful painting of Castlerigg Stone Circle in Cumbria U.K. where time becomes relative.
MINUS FORTY January 6, 2022
Catherine reads MINUS FORTY from her poetry collection Geosmin.
In the deep cold weather there is a garden of growing things made of ice.
CHICKADEES & SYLVAN December 30, 2021
Catherine reads 2 poems of season: CHICKADEES by Minnesota Poet Laureate, Joyce Sutphen, from her collection Carrying Water to the Field
and
SYLVAN (L’HOMME VERT) from poet, Donna Carnes, portraying each of the four seasons through the eyes of a tree in the imagist style.