I’m not actually that interested in wildlife or having encounters with wild animals. I am interested in how language constructs nature and how the stories we tell about nature — whether this be in the vein of “frontier gothic” or the ol’ chestnut — create patterns of meaning in which we position ourselves as humans in relationship to the wild. I’m not sure exactly what this position is. I think it shifts quite a bit according to our purposes in telling stories — the first poem of Bear Stories, let’s say, in comparison with one of the later poems is a good example of what I mean about shifting positions.
~ J’Lyn Chapman @ Bookslut
tawny grammar is a notebook of nature and culture, on the web and in the wild. The name comes from Thoreau's essay "Walking", and the image above is the Bruder Klaus Field Chapel. My name is Steve Himmer, and I'm trying to make something out of all this.