​Iron Moon
November 13, 2016
© Ray Zimmerman
 
Last night a moon red as hot iron
on a blacksmith’s forge
shone through smoky haze,
threatened the city’s skyline.
 
Trees on every nearby mountain ignited
like strike anywhere matches,
blaze spreading from tree to tree.
 
Headlights of automobiles
bounced along highways,
shone through ash and soot.
 
An arsonist confessed to setting
three of the fires.
The press carried no report of his motives.
 
The insane dance of a burning world
where once the earth was green. 

My most recent project is a bibliography of selected works by Robert Sparks Walker. Here is some of the introductory material. 

Introduction
 
Robert Sparks Walker is best known as the founder of the Chattanooga Audubon Society and for his foresight in setting aside their Elise Chapin Wildlife Sanctuary, popularly known as Audubon Acres. Chattanooga Audubon’s acquisition of the Maclellan Island property during Walker’s lifetime is sometimes added as a brief footnote to that achievement. His literary career began 44 years before the founding of Chattanooga Audubon but is rarely mentioned. The author hopes to preserve a record of Walker’s achievements as a poet, editor, publisher and author, and to provoke new interest his published works.
 
Brief Biographical Sketch
 
Robert Sparks Walker (1878-1960), was born in the log cabin on his father’s farm, the property now known as Audubon Acres, and is buried near the cabin, with his wife Sarah Elberta Clark (1892 -1924) and son Robert Sparks Walker, Jr (1907 – 1915). Robert Sparks Walker and Elberta Clark were married in 1904. Elberta’s death made Walker the single parent of their second son, Wendell Clark Walker (1909 – 1988), then aged fourteen years. In 1960, Walker suffered a heart attack while leading a nature walk on the Audubon Acres property. He was taken to his home where he received medical care. He died the following day at age 82.
 
Significance as a Writer
 
Robert Sparks Walker began writing freelance articles while still in high school. At age 22, he acquired fifty percent ownership of the Southern Fruit Grower magazine in 1900. He served as editor and publisher of that magazine until its sale in 1921. He served as Nature Editor of Flower Grower 1923 – 1934 and had a weekly nature column in the Chattanooga Times beginning in 1933.
 
His first published book, Anchor Poems, appeared in 1925, followed by a second book of verse, My Fathers Farm, in 1927. Walker had a growing reputation as an author and editor when, at age 53, he published Torchlights to the Cherokees (Macmillan, 1931). The Pulitzer Prize nomination for that book accelerated his career. He spent several weeks examining relevant materials in the files of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (Andover-Harvard Theological Library) to complete Torchlights to the Cherokees.
 
Walker followed Torchlights to the Cherokees with a novel, a collection of short stories, two additional books of poetry, and a series of booklets promoting the City of Chattanooga and economic growth in the city and the surrounding area. He returned to book length nonfiction with Lookout: The Story of a Mountain which begins with the geology of the mountain and continues through human habitation.
 
His final book length work, As the Indians Left It includes charming stories of childhood life on the farm and documents the early days of the Chattanooga Audubon Society and the sanctuary. Local historians have disputed his statements about the history of the property and the log cabin, and artifacts related to Native American occupation of the land, but not Walker’s significance as a conservationist and author. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation gives an annual award for lifetime achievement in conservation which is named the Robert sparks Walker Award.
 
Walker also hosted a weekly radio show. He produced “illustrated slide talks,” loaned to schools and civic groups, and helped produce at least one nature film.
 
Method
 
The author searched the data base of the Chattanooga Public Library and the stacks of the Local History Department thereof. The “Ask a Librarian” feature of the Tennessee State Library and Archives web page revealed a wealth of information at that institution. The author also examined some of the materials available at Audubon Acres.
 
Finally, the author used the web site https://www.worldcat.org to search for materials in other libraries. Since many of the works are out of print, each entry includes a partial list of libraries where they are available. The author organized the list by date in order to establish a timeline for the works.
 
Acknowledgements
 
The librarians at the Local History Department of the Chattanooga Public Library and those at the Tennessee State Library and Archives were gracious and helpful. Bonnie Kring of the Chattanooga Audubon Society Board of Directors (History Committee) reviewed an early draft of the manuscript and offered suggestions. Members of the Chattanooga Writers Guild, Poetry and Nonfiction critique group, reviewed the introductory material. Their suggestions were particularly helpful. Any errors or omissions are solely the author’s responsibility.   
 
Works by Robert Sparks Walker
 
Published books by Robert Sparks Walker form the primary focus of this work. A complete description of the thousands of pages of magazine and newspaper articles, personal papers and correspondence is beyond its scope, though a few particularly significant such works are included. A few secondary sources by Mary Bell Fisher, E. Raymond Evans, Wyman R. Greene and Andra Walker Moscowitz (writing as Alexandra Walker Clark) are included.

  ​Messages
 
In the days of instant messages, there are no editors.
The reader takes the place of writer and editor.
Other readers add their comments immediately.
Advice columns are unnecessary.
Readers pose questions in open forums.
Does anyone know a good auto mechanic?
Where should I shop for hand-made jewelry?
Friends and strangers offer advice.  All sources are 100 percent reliable. 

This historic cabin is generally recognized as the birthplace of Robert Sparks Walker, poet, literary naturalist, and founder of the Chattanooga Audubon society. He and his wife and first born son are buried next to it. 

(c) 2019, Ray Zimmerman
There is a videotape on Facebook of me reading this piece. Here is the text. 

Late August Collage
 
Begin with the yellow flowers of a Jerusalem artichoke. Make strands of its essence, warp and woof, a framework it is.

​Weave in the golden-brown of coreopsis, the pink of coneflower. Add the red of fireweed and you have made a start. Weave in the rich brown feather of a wren, dropped near her empty nest. Eggshells make a nice touch if you can find them.

Hang your tapestry from the branch of a hickory. Let it ripen with the nuts.

When the time is right, add lichen: the gray of old man’s beard, the ephemeral green vessels called pixie cups, the red topped British soldiers.

Let it bake in the August sun and steep in the lightning of sudden storms. It will hide its eyes from the muddy rivulets flowing from the impact of pounding male rain and soften with the nurturing mists of female rain.

Now your tapestry is ready to receive the gentle songs of chickadees and nuthatches. Let the pileated woodpecker drop chips from his drill as he feeds on carpenter ants. A few will stick.

Seek the help of a spider. Her silk will bind the work together. Hang your tapestry on your wall if you must.
When spiderlings hatch from its threads you will understand that it belongs in the woods. This will happen at the time of day when the buzzing of cicadas gives way to the trills of katydids.

Hang it on your porch. Let light from Altair and Deneb illuminate its recesses. It will waffle in the breeze of early morning as bats retire to take their daytime rest.

Ask yourself, have I woven this tapestry, or has it woven me.  

The Chattanooga Writers Guild organized the event, hosted by the Downtown branch of the Chattanooga Public Library. As part of the event, Rhyme N Chat put on an open mic from 12 noon to 2:15 PM. September 7, 2019. 

As published in Healing ad Conflict 
​(c) Ray Zimmerman, 2018

Full Speed Ahead
 
I wonder how there came to be
a plastic island in the sea.
 
No challenge to avoid a crash.
Cleave right through, our course is brash.
 
Beware if barnacles adorn your boat.
They’ll snag each plastic piece afloat.
 
Cigarette lighters float in the wrack
thick as lice on a heron’s back.
 
Old bleach bottle and plastic bag; 
sent to landfills by both dame and hag.
 
The plastics escape with torrential rain;
Go down the river like soap down the drain.
 
Birds and turtles feed on this mess.
Dead in a week would be my guess.

So, keep your plastic safe at home.
Don’t send it out to sea to roam. 

​For Immediate Release
Contact Star Line Books: (423) 577-5629
Poetry of Humor
Tuesday, July 30, 6 PM to 7 PM
Star Line Books is pleased to announce a celebration of humorous verse, light verse, and satire, to take place Tuesday, June 30 at 6 PM. Bring your own poems or those of others and be prepared to read them out loud.
 
“Wet dog is the friendliest.” – Ogden Nash
 
Poetry of Humor is a Fifth Tuesday event. Ray Zimmerman is producer and host for Fifth Tuesday events, now in their fourth year at Star Line Books.
 
Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, its too dark to read.” – Groucho Marxs
 
Speaking in a book review:
“This novel should not be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.” – Dorothy Parker