"A Poet's Job"
In the early
spring morning
frost,
two deer
browse the huckleberry shoots
from Crown Zellerbach's holding
over into
Scott Paper.
A poet's job is a tricky one.
Tim McNulty
mcmorgan@olypen.com
168 Lost Mountain Lane
Sequim, WA 98382
Tim McNulty is a poet, essayist, and
nature writer. He grew up in Connecticut's
Quinnepiac River Valley, and attended
Northeastern University and the University of
Massachusetts in Boston. Tim moved to the
Pacific Northwest in 1972 and settled on
Washington's Olympic Peninsula. A passionate
spokesman for the Wild, he remains active in
the Northwest environmental community.
Tim's poems, essays, and articles have
appeared in numerous publications in the U.S.
and abroad, and his natural history writings
have been translated into German and
Japanese. He is the author of ten books of
natural history, including "Olympic
National Park, a Natural History," which
received the Washington Governor's Writers
Award, and "Washington's Mount Rainier
National Park," which won the American
Outdoor Book Award.
Tim's poetry collections are "In Blue
Mountain Dusk" (Pleasure Boat Studio)
and "Pawtracks" (Copper Canyon
Press). His chapbooks include "Reflected
Light" (Tangram Press), "Tundra
Songs" (Empty Bowl), "As a Heron
Unsettles a Shallow Pool"
(Exiled-in-America Press), and "Last
Year's Poverty" (Brooding Heron Press).
Of his poetry, Tim writes, "For as
long as I can recall, I've found meaning,
inspiration, and solace in the natural world.
Poetry is the form that most closely evokes
and articulates that experience for me. To be
sure, my poems celebrate my community of
family and friends, but always within that
larger natural community that holds us."
Tim has shared his work and taught poetry
workshops at universities and writers
retreats throughout the West. He teaches
nature poetry workshops each year for North
Cascades Institute www.ncascades.org/. He
lives with his family in the foothills of
Washington's Olympic Mountains.
Typing a Poem for a Friend, I Stop and
Listen to a Woodpecker Accompanying Me from a
Snag across the Creek
--After James Wright
The deep hollow knocks carry through the
trees,
Down the quiet mumble of the creek
And weave their way into the small racket of
my typing.
I stop.
The random pauses and flurries, the single
drawn notes seem
So much sweeter than mine. Inspired,
I haul the old machine out onto the roof.
The morning is cold and white with frost; the
sun
has not yet broken past the trees.
In a long liquid pause I close my eyes and
begin
hitting keys, haphazard, hoping to maybe
match
its rhythms, I've always
Longed to talk to woodpeckers this way.
A single winter wren flutters up to the edge
of the roof,
And the world is suddenly filled with light.
Poetry
In Blue Mountain Dusk
(Pleasure Boat Studio, 1992,
ISBN 0-9651413-8-1)
Pawtracks
(Copper Canyon Press, 1978)
Chapbooks
Last Year's Poverty
(Brooding Heron Press)
Reflected Light
(Tangram Press)
Through High Still Air, A Season at Sourdough Mountain
(Pleasure Boat Studio)
Non-Fiction
Olympic National Park, A Natural
History (University of Washington Press,
2003, ISBN 0-295-983000-0)
Washington's Mount Rainier National Park (The
Mountaineers Books, 1998, ISBN 0-89886-621-9)
Washington's Wild Rivers (The
Mountaineer Books, 1990, ISBN 0-89886-170-5)
