<![CDATA[Light and Shadow - The Rains Come]]>

<![CDATA[Light and Shadow - The Rains Come]]>Fri, 27 Feb 2026 14:29:54 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[A Kettle of Vultures]]>Thu, 26 Feb 2026 21:37:41 GMThttps://www.rayzimmermanauthor.com/the-rains-come/a-kettle-of-vulturesA kettle of vultures makes a gruesome stew
They gather where hunters abandon a deer
Sit still for too long, and they might feed on you.
They eat things dead for days with nary a fear.

They gather where hunters abandon a deer.
They circle the skies until they see food.
They eat things dead for days with nary a fear.
Dead, not alive, is what they find good.

They circle the skies until they see food.
Sit still for too long, and they might feed on you.
Dead, not alive, is what they find good.
A kettle of vultures makes a gruesome stew.

]]><![CDATA[Magic]]>Thu, 26 Feb 2026 21:31:42 GMThttps://www.rayzimmermanauthor.com/the-rains-come/magicCrochety old man that I am
I experience magic when
Aquatic therapy straightens my spine
Cranes call from skies above
A throng of humans gathers to hear them call
I turn off the latest garbage.com
I am relieved after a doctor's appointment
A peppermint candy melts on my tongue
Carrots grow in my flower pots
I find a thread to gather disparate thoughts
Into a unified whole

]]><![CDATA[Personhood in the Natural World]]>Tue, 02 Dec 2025 15:21:20 GMThttps://www.rayzimmermanauthor.com/the-rains-come/personhood-in-the-natural-worldPersonhood

A Reflection on Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Essay, “Speaking of Nature,” which appears here:
https://orionmagazine.org/article/speaking-of-nature/

As a scientist specializing in mosses, Robin Wall Kimmerer must regard the uniqueness of each species, possibly that of each plant. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Tribe, she is heir to a tradition that grants personhood to every living creature, including some which my own culture would not regard as alive, such as rivers and fire.

In English, we reserve names and use the pronouns he and she solely for humans and a few special beings, such as pet dogs. For inanimate objects and every other living thing, we use the pronoun “it.” Kimmerer spends several paragraphs on the word "it," as a disrespectful term from her perspective. Calling a bear or a beaver “it” is horrifying to her, just as calling a grandparent “it” would be horrifying to us.

To remedy this situation, she proposes using the words Ki and Kin for nonhuman creatures that she regards as persons. She sought the guidance of an elder and settled on the word “Ki,” the second syllable of a long Potawatomi word meaning “being of the earth.” She proposes the word “kin” as a plural pronoun.

Kimmerer spent a few pages in her book, Braiding Sweetgrass, on this subject, but I do not recall her introducing the new words “Ki” and “Kin.” She pointed out that she would refer to an animal or plant as someone rather than something.

After reading the book, I experimented with using the term “someone” in statements such as “someone has built a dam on someone who flows between two banks.” These poems elicited puzzled looks from others attending an open mic where I read them, except from one person, who vigorously nodded and said, “Yes, someone, not something.” So, one of twenty caught my meaning.

While it is true that language shapes our mindset toward the natural world and everything else that we experience, it is also true that common usage shapes language. This is how Middle English became Modern English, and Latin gave rise to the Romance languages. In my opinion, the process happens through cultural shifts, rather than intentionality.

As a practical matter, I do not know whether modern Western culture can extend the respect due to personhood to nonhuman beings, either philosophically or linguistically. The way we use language matters, but the sort of change Kimmerer advocates may not be well received, although there is some historical precedent.

I recall reading “The Canticle of Brother Sun” by St. Francis of Assisi. It begins by praising God through Brother Sun and goes on to reference Brother Wind, Brother Fire, Sister Water, Sister Moon, Sister Air, and our Sister Mother Earth. One commentator said his greatest miracle was not being burned at the stake as a heretic. Another suggested St. Francis as the patron saint of the environmental movement.

I like the language of St. Francis and Robin Wall Kimmerer because it aligns with my worldview, but making such a change in my writing may jeopardize my chances of publication. Nevertheless, I continue to eliminate the word “it” in reference to non-human life forms.

For example, to avoid saying “he,” “she,” or “it,” I use the animal type's name. Instead of saying “it was asleep in its den,” I would say the bear slept in the den.

]]><![CDATA[Tonight]]>Wed, 26 Nov 2025 11:06:45 GMThttps://www.rayzimmermanauthor.com/the-rains-come/tonightTonight

Tonight I wear a heart monitor.
I wonder about the arteries in my neck.
Could they be closing?

Poppa wore one before he refused a second surgery.
I watched him decline as plaque blocked his arteries.
With the words, “No more hunting,” I took his shotgun.

His car keys went when he opened a car door without looking.
A truck struck the door. Its license plate faded in the distance.

When voices filled his head, he went to a locked ward.
He returned changed by medications.
The voices remained, but no longer threatened him.

Special locks on my doors prevented his escape.
Like a young child, he went to a daycare center
so I could continue to work.

As I contemplate my father, forgetting who I was,
and forgetting his own name, I know I will not sleep tonight.]]><![CDATA[Bissel]]>Wed, 26 Nov 2025 11:03:35 GMThttps://www.rayzimmermanauthor.com/the-rains-come/bisselThunder Bissel chases Thunder; he’s not like other dogs.
They cower and whine when thunder booms.
Bissel bares his teeth and growls.
If he gets out, he runs toward the noise, not away.

One night as Bissel slept, he bared his teeth and growled.
In his dream, he ran above the clouds.
He caught Thunder by the leg.
Thunder kicked and ran, but Bissel hung on, woke up smiling.

Some say Thunder and his brother are giant birds.
They shoot whales with lightning bolts.

Others say Thunder and her sister run through the heavens.
They knock over pots and pans, and water falls to the earth.

But Thunder lives at the base of a roaring waterfall.
He wears a rattlesnake for a necklace.
Look out, Bissel. Here comes Thunder.]]><![CDATA[Late Autumn]]>Sat, 22 Nov 2025 10:18:54 GMThttps://www.rayzimmermanauthor.com/the-rains-come/late-autumn

I created the poem and photograph on my deck.
Late Autumn

Winterize your vehicle,
but summarize a plot.
Spring into action and
fall off a log.

Falling leaves
in the backyard
abandon hickories
and forsake
golden shimmering in
the morning sun.

Soon, skeletal branches
will point naked fingers
skyward, and I shall miss
the beauty that now abounds.

But the river shall come
into view with barges
moving timber for commerce.
Check out my video of falling leaves on this Substack post:
https://substack.com/@znaturalist/p-179067857

]]><![CDATA[Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Wall]]>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 21:40:44 GMThttps://www.rayzimmermanauthor.com/the-rains-come/thirteen-ways-of-looking-at-a-wall9536809

Drawing: The All-Seeing Eye Sheds a Tear
by Ray Zimmerman.
Medium: Watercolor Pencils and Color Pencils

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Wall

1. Robert Frost and his neighbor repaired their stone wall boundary.
The neighbor declared the results good.
Frost contemplated a new poem.

2. Migrating Red-winged Blackbirds impaled themselves on slats erected on the U.S.–Mexico border. The Department of Homeland Security
declared the nation safe -- from blackbirds.

3. Manchu invaders encountered the Great Wall of China. They proceeded with their war of conquest.

4. Thanks to the popular band, Pink Floyd,
we are all just bricks in the wall.

5. President Ronald Reagan stood on Berlin Soil
and said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

6. President Thomas Jefferson assured the
Baptist Committee of Danbury, Connecticut
that they would be free to worship as they saw fit
and not subject to regulation by the Calvinist majority.
He proclaimed a wall of separation between church and state.

7. President Donald Trump is building
a wall along the Mexican border, but
Construction began a few administrations ago.

8. Three Little Pigs built walls of straw, sticks, and brick.
The Big Bad Wolf held a barbecue.
The third pig declined the invitation.

9. The Speaker of the House once refused to let the President
address the nation from the House Chambers.
She built a wall to enforce the separation of powers.

10. Jesus extols the value of building walls on rock foundations;
advises against building on sand.

11. The descendants of Isaac gather at the Western Wall;
offer prayers and lamentations.
They hope for the rebuilding of the Temple.

12. The followers of Mohammed gather within the walls
of the Dome of the Rock.
They pray for the preservation of the mosque.

13. A hacker interface may penetrate firewalls at will,
and take down Fortune 500 websites.

Previously published in the now-defunct literary magazine Number One, which was published at Volunteer State Community College in Gallatin, Tennessee.

]]><![CDATA[The Report on the Deportation]]>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 13:17:09 GMThttps://www.rayzimmermanauthor.com/the-rains-come/the-report-on-the-deportation

You will see more of this graphic in the coming days.
Be on the lookout.

This post includes three poems.
1. The Report of the Deported.
2. The men behind the man.
3. Roadless

The Report on the Deported

Commission a report on the deportation.
Redact and sanitize the report.
Bury it alive under mounds of paperwork.

Dig up the report and shred every copy.
Be certain you leave no paper trail.
Deport the reporter.

The Men Behind the Man

Always remember, it’s not about a man.
It’s about the men behind the man,
and how they hold on to power.

They fund the disinformation and
misinformation. They fund the
business and professional association.

They fund the PACs and Super PACs,
as political hacks encourage the
grassroots movements called astroturf.

What will you do when they remove
the man that you have so eloquently
opposed with satire and grace.

The funders will decide when he
is no longer an asset and becomes
a liability.

They will turn their backs
as they maintain plausible deniability.
They will disdain the headlines.

They will throw him under the
train as the foundations and the
corporations laugh at the resistance.

His replacement will also be
a disposable razor. The men and
their policies will remain.

We need a plan to dislodge them.

Roadless

The men squash toads as they build the roads.
They will use them for free to cut our trees.

Southern forests yield logs to machines with cogs,
but peletized trees can’t sway in the breeze.

I worried about the Amazon in the past, but we cut
our trees four times as fast. They surely won’t last.

Our condition will be worse if they reverse
the roadless rule. Only a fool would not see the damage

]]><![CDATA[The Hour of Land Has Come Again]]>Thu, 20 Nov 2025 08:51:16 GMThttps://www.rayzimmermanauthor.com/the-rains-come/the-hour-of-land-has-come-againThis is an updated version of a post that appeared on my Substack publication on October 9, 2025.
rayzimmerman.substack.com/p/the-hour-of-land-has-come-again.
Updates appear at the end of this article.

A few weeks ago, Donald Trump announced plans to complete the 211-mile Ambler Road project through the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve and adjacent lands to open the area for mining. The project has long been debated and was not approved by the Biden administration. I reread a portion of The Hour of Land by Tempest Williams shortly after hearing about the Project. I have never visited the park.

Among Williams’ comments on this National Park was this gem, “I return to the wilderness to remember what I have forgotten, that the world can be wholesome and beautiful, that the harmony and integrity of ecosystems at peace is a mirror to what we have lost.”

The Chapter was previously published as an Orion Magazine article, and a link to the online edition is available in the notes below. This is also true of the Chapter on the Gulf Islands National Seashore, which she wrote shortly after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The articles are well worth a read, but better yet, order and read the book. It is filled with lovely stories about our National Parks.

Portions of this book were originally published as articles in Orion Magazine. It included chapters on the following National Park Service units.

Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota.
Acadia National Park, Maine.
Gettysburg National Military Park, Pennsylvania.
Effigy Mounds National Monument, Iowa.
Big Bend National Park, Texas.
Canyonlands National Park, Utah.
Alcatraz Island, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, California.
Glacier National Park, Montana.
Cesar E. Chavez National Monument, California, and the Future.
“The Glorious Indifference of Wilderness” in Orion Magazine is an earlier version of the Chapter, “Gates of the Arctic National Park, Alaska.”
“The Gulf Between Us,” in Orion Magazine, is an earlier version of the Chapter, “Gulf Islands National Seashore: Florida and Mississippi.”
Reviews of The Hour of Land appear on Goodreads.

Comments from the National Parks Conservation Association regarding the road through the Gates of the Arctic National Park appear here:
https://www.npca.org/articles/11036-gates-of-the-arctic-scenes-from-a-park-at-a-crossroads.

Comments from The Wilderness Society appear here:
https://www.wilderness.org/wild-places/alaska/road-building-gates-arctic-national-p

Other Recent Actions

The Trump administration sold oil leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, just as the first Trump administration did on January 6, 2021. https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IF12006

The administration plans to complete the road through the Izembec National Wildlife Refuge.
https://www.fws.gov/refuicle ge/izembek.

The administration has revealed plans to weaken the enforcement of the Endangered Species Act.
Acthttps://apnews.com/article/9bf4541d89e6444783814e53302ce479

The US Forest Service has announced its intent to rescind the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
https://www.wilderness.org/articles/press-release/attack-roadless-forests-officially-underway. ]]><![CDATA[Roots of Southern Nature Writing]]>Tue, 18 Nov 2025 23:02:31 GMThttps://www.rayzimmermanauthor.com/the-rains-come/roots-of-southern-nature-writingThis post previously appeared on Substack, August 21, 2023:
rayzimmerman.substack.com/p/roots-of-southern-nature-writing

In an earlier edition, I cited four authors as early literary naturalists connected to Chattanooga, Tennessee. I know there are other Southern nature writers from the eras of Walker, Miles, Steele, and Torrey, and I would love to hear about them, for nature writing is as much about the author as the natural world.

I welcome the mention of any names in the comment section with some trepidation. The number will likely exceed the time I have to read them all. Please mention them, nevertheless. You may catch the interest of another reader who will discover the joy of reading those works.

In this post, I present brief mentions of three of the earliest Southern nature writers.

William Bartram, 1739-1823

William Bartram of Philadelphia traveled in the American southeast between 1773 and 1777, recording lists of plants and sending specimens to Dr. John Fothergill in England for propagation. He wrote about the landscape, the indigenous people, and the settlers. James and Johnson of Philadelphia published Bartram’s book, now known as Bartram’s Travels, in 1791.

I have yet to discover any extensive comments on Tennessee in Bartram’s writings, other than a description of the Tennessee River, which he called the Cherokee River. He noted its outflow into the Ohio and, thus, the Mississippi. He also described the Tenasi River, which may have been the Little Tennessee River.

Bartram’s descriptions of indigenous people include the Seminole, Creek, Cherokee, and Choctaw, which he spelled Chactaw. I have discovered no references to the Chickasaw, which reinforces my belief that he did not include western Tennessee in his travels. He also described the Yuchi, which he spelled Uchi. He told of two adjoining towns that spoke different languages, the one Creek and the other Yuchi. Those villages were located on the “Chatta Uchi” River, likely the river now known as the Chattahoochee.

I have not read the full text, but I frequently return to my copy of The Library of America edition, which includes the 425-page Travels, a 100-page report to Dr. John Fothergill, a reply to inquiries about the region’s Indigenous people, and several shorter works. https://loa.org/writers/300-william-bartram.

The Great Naturalists, edited by Robert Huxley, includes a chapter about Bartram.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3037516651.

A Bartram Biography appears on the website of The Florida Museum.
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/naturalists/bartram/.

Another appears on the website of The Georgia Historical Society:
https://georgiahistory.com/education-outreach/online-exhibits/featured-historical-figures/william-bartram/brief-biography/.

I recently discovered Bartram’s Living Legacy, published by Mercer University Press, a volume with the entire text of the Travels, followed by essays from contemporary nature writers. Editor Dorinda G. Dallmeyer referred to Bartram as the Thoreau of the South. My aging eyes appreciate the typography with its larger font and spacing.

I have been reading the section on the Cherokee Country because it is near where I live in Tennessee, though it is more relevant to North Carolina. He traveled through Augusta, Georgia, and South Carolina to reach the region.

Christopher Camuto’s essay in the contemporary writers’ section is a nice concurrent read. He references his own book, Another Country, Journeying Toward the Cherokee Mountains.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8648595-bartram-s-living-legAndré

André Michaux 1746-1802

Michaux was among the early European botanists to explore the American South. He made several trips through Tennessee. Louis XVI appointed him to collect specimens shipped to France for preservation, propagation, and study. His son, FraAndré André Michaux, was also noteworthy. Their work seems to have become conflated in some references.

Although he wrote extensively about North America and its natural world, Michaux’s influence among English-speaking authors is limited because he wrote in French. This is less true for Botanists because Michaux’s name appears repeatedly in botanical nomenclature.

The abbreviated form of his name, “Michx,” appears after the Latinized names of several plants, crediting him with assigning them. A list of plants he named appears online:
https://www.michaux.org/plantscarolina.htm:

Many plants are named in his honor. The Carolina Lily, Lilium michauxii, is one of many named for Michaux.
The Abbeville Press has issued The Trees of North America: Michaux and Redouté’s American Masterpiece with translated text. The publisher also included additional illustrations and an afterword by esteemed artist and writer David Allen Sibley.
https://www.abbeville.com/products/the-trees-of-north-america

The University of Alabama Press has released a collection of journals and letters translated from the original texts under the title André Michaux in North America.
http://uapress.ua.edu/product/Andr%C3%A9-Michaux-in-North-America,7404.aspx

His other works are primarily out of print, but some are available through used book vendors. Be sure you are getting a translation if you can’t read French.

The Tennessee Native Plant Society includes Michaux in its Tennessee Botanist Hall of Fame. The document includes several brief biographies, so scroll to the end of the page for information on Michaux.
https://www.tnps.org/hall-of-fame/

The website of the Tipton-Hanes Historic Site in northeast Tennessee includes information about Michaux’s visit to the region. He stayed at the house there on one of his visits to Tennessee. http://www.tipton-haynes.org/research/history/andre-michaux/

Mark Catesby 1683-1749

When I hear this name, I think of the lovely Catesby’s Trillium, Trillium catesbaei:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/trillium_catesbaei.shtml.

I make this association because I first noticed the name Catesby shortly after moving to Chattanooga in 1990, and discovering the plant in flower. I was surprised to learn that he is sometimes called the father of American ornithology.

In his book, The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands, Catesby made an exhaustive inventory of the natural world in these areas. He collected plant specimens and sent them to England for cultivation. An internet search of Catesby’s name revealed that the art world also celebrates him, and his prints are collectors’ items.

For Catesby’s full story, consult Patrick Dean’s book, Nature’s Messenger, Mark Catesby and His Adventures in a New World: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62918246-nature-s-messenger.

The Great Naturalists, edited by Robert Huxley, includes a lovely article about Catesby by Steve Cafferty. This magnificent book is worthy of mention. The editor is the Head of Collections, Botany Department, the Natural History Museum, London. The stories begin with Aristotle and end with Asa Gray, the noted author of Gray’s Manual of Botany: https://huh.harvard.edu/book/grays-manual-botany.

My comments here only briefly introduce early nature writing in the Southeast and America in General. Additional authors are there to discover in Huxley’s book and elsewhere.

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