​Introduction
 
I am writing a series of blog posts which may become a short book of daily meditations on the natural world. Some of these entries began as short articles published in newsletters and periodicals. Some began as performance pieces read or recited to live audiences. In some cases, I learned the hard way how long is too long for a performance piece. I also learned that the tolerance for lengthy pieces varies from one audience to another in sometimes unpredictable ways.

Some of the pieces were written as short essays and combined for submission to journals as braided essays. Longer pieces are fine as essays, but do not work well as orations, so I have unwound a few essays into component parts to create the short meditations presented here and for use in performance art.

In most cases I have included citations to places where the reader can find more information. Use of these references is, of course, up to you, but I want your experience of the pieces to be as much about you, the reader, as it is about me, the author. I have also posed questions which you may view as a starting point for your own meditation, an opportunity for rebuttal, or questions to be ignored. A few people may view them as a writing prompt. Posting them on my blogs creates opportunities for reply.

 
Bull ’Gator’s Lament
 
What’s that man lookin’ at, down here in this cypress swamp, so thick with branches that the sun barely gets through? He’s lookin’ at me, Old Bull ’Gator, and I’m lookin’ at him.  Why don’t you come on over for dinner?

Speaking of dinner, you should have been here when I grabbed that turtle from his sunny spot over there by the water hyacinths. When I broke through to meat, those tourists thought a rifle shot had gone off. Fish, man, bird, or turtle, I get my dinner.

Sometimes, man eats us though. He’ll come down to this swamp and put a bullet in a ’gator’s brain. Those poachers don’t waste any time. They skin the ’gator out right here and cut up the tail meat for Cajun delight. The hide gets made into boots.

The poachers never got me though. Bigger ’gators missed their chance too. I had to be careful when I was young, because we been known to eat our own. But now, I’m king of this here swamp.

​Springtime is my favorite time of year, with Spanish Moss fluttering in the breeze, like curtains in an old mansion house. That’s when I get to bellowing. My bellows echo off the cypress trunks and all through the swamp. Those lady ’gator’s bellow right back. When one of them judges Old Bull fit, we spin like two demons in a whirlpool.

Pretty soon, she will be building a nest out of mud and sticks. When the eggs hatch that fierce old momma ’gator hears those young’uns grunting She gently pulls the nest apart and tenderly frees the baby ’gators. That’s when she won’t want Old Bull around, because we’ve been known to eat our own.
Maybe I’ll just wonder off and watch those fishing boats go by. Perhaps one of them will flip over. Man, fish bird or turtle, I get my dinner.

Look over yonder at those little ’gators sunning themselves on their momma’s snout. I believe one of them is a baby bull. He will have to grow some before he can be king of my swamp. 
 
Commentary:
Bull ’Gator’s Lament is a performance piece, generally well received by the audience. It was once much longer and is now shortened to a length that works better. I will continue to refine it as I present it at more venues. It is of course, pure fantasy. For a factual look an alligator’s habitat, read Everglades, River of Grass by Marjory Stoneman Douglass
 
For the Reader:
Though nature is sometimes portrayed in the cuddly realm of soft bunny rabbits and downy goslings, predation is a day to day reality. Some animals are downright frightening. 
How to you perceive the natural world?
Is it a resource for the creation of wealth through extraction of such materials as timber and coal?
Is it a wilderness to be protected, or perhaps tamed?
Is it a place of solace and healing?
Is it a frightening place? 

​Healing and Conflict is my new chapbook featuring my poems and color photography. The color photographs of waterfalls and flowers reflect the healing power of nature Many of the poems are paired opposites on the same topic, one expressing conflict and the other expressing healing. The $12.00 price for the book reflects the cost of color printing. For this one event, participants will receive both a copy of the book and a spaghetti dinner for just $15.00. Ticketing will be available at the door.           

​Go to home page for further details. 
https://www.rayzimmermanauthor.com/​

​October Meeting, Tennessee Ornithological Society, Chattanooga Chapter
 
Ascension Lutheran Church 720 S Germantown Rd Thursday, October 11 5:30 p.m.  Executive Board 7:00 p.m.  Monthly Meeting Program:   For our October 11 meeting, O. J. Morgan will present a program on his birding trip last year to South Africa. O.J. is Headmaster of The Bright School. Some of you may not know O.J., but he joined our chapter of TOS about three years ago, has become an active birder, and encourages bird awareness and observing at his school. 
  
Thanks  Thanks to David Aborn for presenting an illustrated talk on birds of Argentina and bird banding in Argentina at our September meeting.  

 
Greenway farm is a large wooded park in Hixson, a part of Chattanooga north of the Tennessee River. It includes a dog park, walking trails, two canoe launches, fishing access, Chickamauga Quarry and a building available for meetings by Reservation, (423) 643-6311. Further information is available at:
 
http://www.chattanooga.gov/public-works/parks

Here is my story of a recent visit:
General Comments
The old cabin and the garden provided numerous photographic opportunities. I visited the canoe launch which provides creek access, Like the river, the creek was running high and muddy.
The old quarry proved very photogenic, with blue-green water and vertical rock faces. Sneezeweed (Helenium sp.) was prevalent along the path.  
I remember finding some interesting Paleozoic fossils here in past years, primarily Crinoids, Bryozoans, and Brachiopods. I would imagine that it is well picked over by now.
Species Noted
Goldfinch at gardens
Eastern Blue birds at gardens
5 Lined Skink at quarry http://srelherp.uga.edu/lizards/eumfas.htm 
​Unusual Stinkhorn Fungus

OK, maybe it is raining on the day you find this article, but when the weather turns suitable, consider a visit. Local readers are probably familiar with Chattanooga’s the eight-mile paved trail known as the Riverwalk, and particularly that section known as the Tennessee Riverpark, maintained by Hamilton County Parks and Recreation (http://parks.hamiltontn.gov/). The playground, fishing peers, boat launch, picnic tables, gear rentals, and grills are popular attractions. Families and organizations can reserve picnic shelters for large groups. The phone number for reservations is 423-493-9239.

Though I like the Tennessee Riverpark for group events and bicycling, I thoroughly enjoy two other areas along the Riverwalk. Bird watchers and other nature lovers will particularly enjoy Amnicola Marsh and the Chickamauga Dam area.

Amnicola Marsh is perhaps best known for the American Lotus which bloom and go to seed in late summer. The margins of the large open area are home to a variety of wetland plants, including buttonbush. The surrounding forest is a lowland second growth forest, parts of which occasionally flood. 
The open water inside the vegetated zone has numerous snags, dead trees and shrubs which provide perches for numerous birds. Great Blue Herons are usually abundant, and Green Herons are common. Other wading birds, shorebirds, and waterfowl are seasonally abundant. 

For those not familiar with the birds I name, I recommend viewing photos in a bird guide or on popular web pages, including that of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology https://www.allaboutbirds.org/ or the National Audubon society https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/wood-duck. 
 
During one particularly hot and dry summer, a juvenile Wood Stork made an appearance of several days. Great Egrets are numerous at times, and bird lists have included immature Little Blue Herons and Snowy Egrets.
 
Killdeer are known to nest here and it is a stopping place for Solitary Sandpipers and, on occasion, rarer shorebirds. 
 
The colorful Hooded Mergansers have appeared in winter. Other ducks are common. Mallards and Canada Geese appear year-round. Wood Ducks probably nest here. Gadwall, Green Wing Teal and Northern Shovelers are winter and spring residents.
 
The area immediately below Chickamauga Dam is also popular for bird watching and fishing. A sign installed by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation warns fishers to limit consumption of catfish caught in the river. Peregrine Falcons have been known to nest here. Gulls are abundant in winter, with occasional rarities.
 
Osprey nest in the area, and frequently fish below the dam. Bald Eagles appear occasionally. Nest boxes maintained by a corps of volunteers have yielded several clutches of Eastern Bluebirds and Tree Swallow. 
​

August 25, 2018
 
            I sometimes believe that writing is like those natural phenomena described as sensitive to initial conditions. If a meteorologist starts with one set of conditions and feeds them into a predictive model, they conclude with a weather forecast for the coming days. If that same meteorologist begins with a set of conditions somewhere along the path of that prediction and feeds that data into the same computer program, an entirely different forecast may result. This factor makes, long range forecasting nearly impossible.
 
            Try this experience as a writer. Pick an important sentence from one of your own essays, poems, or short stories and use it as the starting point of a new piece. Where does it end up? Is it the same story, or an entirely new creation? Of course, some readers may respond that they already knew that writing is a chaotic process, even if not in this scientific sense.
 
            In natural systems, this phenomenon is called the “butterfly effect.” Meteorologist Edward Lorenz discovered this effect while working with predictive models. His brief biography in Britanica.com includes an animated video which gives a rapid fire, but more complete description of the phenomenon. 

I have a new chapbook coming out soon. Self published, but more than 1/2 of the poems have previously appeared in journals such as Quill an Parchment, The Avocet, Number One (Gallatin, Tennessee) and the Weatherings anthology from FutureCycle Press. Hear are the back cover blurbs. 

in praise of  
 HEALING & CONFLICT

‘I have come to understand / that my poems are not poems . . . but the poetics of the earth’ (‘Introduction Part I’). Ray Zimmerman explores nature through language and language through nature. With images and similes like ‘The winter snow arrived like a sonnet. / It reached the house in three waves, / capped by a couplet of ice’ (‘Winter Snow’), the reader becomes immersed in Zimmerman’s vivid landscape, both verbal and actual. Though he claims, ‘My poems are shadows on the wall’ (‘Intro Part II’), Zimmerman’s words intrigue the reader as she delves into the subtext of these poems, and they continue to haunt her long after the book is closed.
KB Ballentine Almost Everything, Almost Nothing

In ‘Introduction, Part II,’ Zimmerman says ‘If you enjoy my poem about falling rain or about cranes in flight . . . go and watch rain falling on parched earth . . . listen to cranes trumpeting as they take to the air.’ These poems not only have a prayerful devotion to the natural world but use specific names, images and Zimmerman’s hard won humor from handling hawks, eagles and owls. His sensory details and deeply personal voice enrich the poetic work in this new collection.
Bill Brown

Ray Zimmerman’s collection of poems Healing and Conflict invites the reader outside: ‘go and watch/rain falling on parched earth. /see it come back to life.’ His words, like that rain, are transformative to those who look and listen. Trees burn with ice, water cascades, booming, against mountain hardwoods. Most memorable are the birds. Warblers, hawks, barred owls, chickadees, and cranes provide this book’s unifying motif, and a delightful surprise, when the reader joins a flock of blackbirds in flight.
Marsha Mathews, Beauty Bound