Journal Restoration

"some rounds fall clean down split in two,
some though and thready, knotty,
full of frasses and galleries, gnarly,
gnarly!"
– Gary Snyder, from "Gnarly"








Skunk Cabbage



"Caution: Boardwalk Slippery
When Wet," sign says,
stands under a Douglas,
tilted a little to the right stuck into
a deep green hollow soft and fragrant by needles–
ice has crept up on first three boards
a milky white, late February melt–
Skunk Cabbage Bridge where
Wingra creek meanders, springs up,
meets the lake, where the Ho Chunk
used to live along the banks in birchbark huts
placed tough leather hands
down into the bubbles that emerged
up through columns of ancient rocks
drank
the truest medicine, from world below–
another sign on top of wooden bridge
says skunk cabbage
keeps itself warm bursts up
first in spring, foul smelling –
watch the coyote how he trots off
and disappears down in the creek