Huntley Meadows

Huntley Meadows: A Naturalist’s Journal in Verse
Jamie K. Reaser, with a for­ward by David S. Wilcove
214 pages, 6 x 9 Paperback
978 – 0-​​9799246 – 7-​​5
$15.95

Read an Excerpt

Watching an indi­vidual leaf
waltz its way down
from blue can’t be
any less mirac­u­lous than
birth.

Praise for Huntley Meadows

“Jamie K. Reaser’s poetic account of a year in Huntley Meadows in the heart of Washington is a trea­sure. A top-​​rank sci­en­tist com­mitted to con­ser­va­tion biology, Reaser turns out to be a poet able to project images of the nat­ural world that echo reality — and at the same time move the reader’s spirit. Read it and then go there!” —Donald Kennedy, PhD, President Emeritus of Stanford University

“In the lin­eage of Oliver, Stegner, Lopez and Thoreau, Jamie K. Reaser’s exquisite year-​​long record, Huntley Meadows, guides us as readers to a sacred return. In this living homage to fur, feather, scale and root we remember the deep love pos­sible for a place through the sea­sons. The spirit of a shaman-​​poet and the keen eye of a nat­u­ralist come together in these pages. The end result is a col­lec­tion of verses wherein a spe­cial place is given a voice. Listening to such voices offers all of us res­ur­rec­tion and renewal.”  –Frank Owen, cre­ator of the online poetry expe­ri­ence, nekyia.poetry

“Reaser’s words are able to reach us within our deep fatigue, stir­ring us to ven­ture out into the remaining untouched places and turn within. She bring us with her out into the tall grasses to watch the illu­sive Red Fox and listen to the Bluebirds con­versing with the Wren, knowing that we will find what we need to sooth our modern ails in the sim­plicity, con­stancy and grace of our sur­round. What Reaser gath­ered during her time at Huntley Meadows has the poten­tial to make our wanting lives much richer.” –L.M. Browning author of: Oak Wise and Ruminations at Twilight

“Jamie K. Reaser’s poems trans­port you into the nat­ural world of Huntley Meadows, a mag­ical place in the heart of the DC Metropolitan area. Her words are a wel­coming awak­ening to a sense of nature, some­thing many of us are losing and trying to regain.” –Gabriela Chavarria, PhD, Director of National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) Science Center

“Soulful and deli­cious appe­tizers of poem that make you want to visit Huntley Meadows every day and see what Dr. Reaser has seen. She makes the invis­ible sud­denly vis­ible, and beau­tiful.” –Kevin Munroe, Huntley Meadows, Park Manager