Field Notes Poetry: Inspired by Nature

By: David Starkey

M. L. Brown is the author of “Call It Mist,” for which she won the 3 Mile Harbor Press Book Award, and “Drought,” for which she won the Claudia Emerson Poetry Chapbook Award.

A poet and book artist, she grew up in New Hampshire and earned a bachelor’s degree from Connecticut College and a master’s from Antioch University, Los Angeles.

When not writing, Brown, a resident of Mission Canyon, devotes her time to raising funds for Planned Parenthood and curates the poetry section for their annual book sale.

About her poem “This Path Leaves the Garden,” she says, “There used to be a sign at the Garden on the path leading out to the Tunnel Road gate that read: ‘This Path Leaves (!) the Garden.’ The exclamation point always made me smile. It seemed to be asking: Why would you ever want to leave the Garden?”

This Path Leaves the Garden

Part of us was here

before we were here–

in the spread of oxalis,

the roots of goldenrod.

We can wonder about life’s meaning,

but are not smarter than

the bees hiving in the oak

the frog croaking from the creek

where water slurs into murk

under a footbridge rebuilt after fire.

We know how to tell stories,

pass them on in a kind of evolution,

but we forget, cross the bridge,

and break the spider’s web.