By Allison Adelle Hedge Coke

Sweet rain on old growth sweeps past in fanning sheets,
this morning each veil brings joy, like someone strumming
mist releasing song, falling to branch above hummingbird
dashing in, out, grabbing nectar in the wet, wet, music.
Dashing in, out, grabbing nectar in the wet, wet, music.
Mist releasing song, falling to branch above hummingbird
this morning, each veil brings joy, like someone strumming.
Sweet rain on old growth sweeps past in fanning sheets.


This poem first appeared in the appears in The Long-Term Ecological Reflections collection of H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest Residencies log where I’d been in a cottage with Alison Deming during a collaborative think-tank gathering organized by Oregon State through a National Science Foundation grant. Upon waking and cherishing the feeders in the eaves of the cottage drawing dozens of hummingbirds in and out of the sudden rain, this tribute tumbled out in reflection. The ideology of pattern apparent and fit. It’s a bit of song, meant to capture the gist of gorgeousness in our natural world surroundings. Moreso allowing it to culminate in lines of language we can still savor with the image keen in mind, long after leaving. The whole of it so much like an instrument. One could imagine a harp composed of rain, amidst all the comings and goings in forest eaves, under great canopies, we all must truly work to support and care for, to cherish, least the machinery of consumerism and climate change destroy it all before future generations ever know the immensity of old growth, of thriving forests, of the sweetness there so many lifeforms dwell within, and we truly depend upon for the air that we breathe and sustenance of the planet. This palindrome reflects the integrity of the witness and works to define the sweetness reflection can bear.


H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest Residencies log The Long-Term Ecological Reflections
Is the coda in the book Streaming (Coffee House Press) and included on the CD Streaming;
Rd Klā, Kelvyn Bell, Laura Ortman, Allison Adelle Hedge Coke

The Importance of Arts, Culture & The Creative Process
Arts and humanities are essential pathways to learning, understanding, knowing, translating and articulating our experience as human beings in our world, this planet. This project situates opportunity for essential growth and greater good through the gathering and curation of solution-based change to meet the challenges of an ever-developing crisis we bear witness to and suffer consequence from. This project sets pace for the run we are in and brings opportunity for some peace of the planet and all its immense range of species, to coexist harmoniously, and for us to make meaningful sustainable impact. It is a beautiful and necessary pathway to livable futures.

What was the inspiration for your creative work? This poem first appeared in the appears in The Long-Term Ecological Reflections collection of H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest Residencies log where I’d been in a cottage with Alison Deming during a collaborative think-tank gathering organized by Oregon State through a National Science Foundation grant. Upon waking and cherishing the feeders in the eaves of the cottage drawing dozens of hummingbirds in and out of the sudden rain, this tribute tumbled out in reflection. The ideology of pattern apparent and fit. It’s a bit of song, meant to capture the gist of gorgeousness in our natural world surroundings. Moreso allowing it to culminate in lines of language we can still savor with the image keen in mind, long after leaving. The whole of it so much like an instrument. One could imagine a harp composed of rain, amidst all the comings and goings in forest eaves, under great canopies, we all must truly work to support and care for, to cherish, least the machinery of consumerism and climate change destroy it all before future generations ever know the immensity of old growth, of thriving forests, of the sweetness there so many lifeforms dwell within, and we truly depend upon for the air that we breathe and sustenance of the planet. This palindrome reflects the integrity of the witness and works to define the sweetness reflection can bear.

Tell us something about the natural world that you love and don’t wish to lose. What are your thoughts on the kind of world we are leaving for the next generation? There is nothing in the natural world I don't have some sense of adoration for and would want to sacrifice, nothing. The entirety of it is essential. I especially love all the variations of rain, varieties of water, in all its forms, abundances of trees, of growth, birds/birdsong, and the very spark of life in all the world's inhabitants and places. When the powers of mankind State upon the planet are those in prosody with the planet, we will free ourselves of detrimental means and move toward enjoyment of what it is we are living with and in. Without that change, we stand to lose everything we've ever known about earth, and leave our future generations despair, desperation, degradation, and rob them of fulfilled lives and plentiful livelihood.

Photo credit: Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, Hummingbird Nest, This Morning

"Harp Strings," from Allison Adelle Hedge Coke's collection Streaming, is used by permission of Coffee House Press. Copyright © 2014 by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke.

Allison Adelle Hedge Coke’s recent honors include the Thomas Wolfe Prize & Lecture, California Arts Council Legacy Artist Fellowship, Texas Institute of Letters induction, a Mellon Dean's Professorship and the AWP George Garret Award. She comes from working fields, factories, horses and waters and is a UC Riverside Distinguished Professor. Her latest book Look at This Blue, Coffee House Press was a National Book Awards finalist.