A host of bluffs and relict pines, / man’s contour farms, historic mines / are found throughout the Driftless Lands / some made by God, some, human hands. ~ from “Driftless Area” in Perspectives of Nature by Paul Košir
Spring has officially arrived–ahhh. With sunny days and blue skies, this is the perfect time to soak up some much-needed vitamin D as you take a walk or hit the trail. But don’t go alone. Paul Košir, a poet from LaCrosse, Wisconsin, offers you a companion in poetry.
Košir’s chapbook entitled Perspectives of Nature: Scientifically Romantic and Experiential Nature Poetry offers poems–for all seasons, along with space for your own notes and observations.
A former teacher, Košir decided to blend his two loves–science and poetry, so that anyone might be inspired by the beauty around them but also by the ways in which nature builds that beauty. Košir taps into an audience who enjoys the rhythm and cadence of the genre, as well as the reader who wonders about the why and how of science. Perspectives of Nature is a book of lessons in 32 poems from “Sun Dogs” to “Bird Song.”
I’m honored to host Paul today to talk about his chapbook of poems. And as always, there’s a giveaway. CLICK HERE to enter for a chance to win one of two signed copies of Perspectives of Nature.
Now, welcome Paul Košir!
Christi Craig (CC): Tell us about the origins of this chapbook–what inspired you to mix lessons in science with the prose in poetry?
Paul Košir (PK): The origin of the chapbook was a handful of poems I wrote in the late 1980s while I was the naturalist at Wyalusing State Park near Prairie du Chien, WI. As the naturalist, it was my job to interpret the natural world for park visitors, to describe and explain it. That job, that way of life, inspired me to mix science lessons in with my lines of poetry. I found my voice – writing beautiful, instructive verses.
But then I didn’t write another poem for 20 years. When I did write again, I began to add a natural perspective to my poems and was pleased with the result. With a new style emerging, I joined the Wisconsin Writers Association. The WWA published 4 of my poems in an anthology, which introduced me to the anthology’s compiler. He offered to guide me through the publication of a book of my poems with science themes. I began writing poetry in earnest to create enough poems for a book, not only because I wanted to write, but also because I felt I should write.
CC: A few of my favorite poems are: 1) “Warblers” (“They never stop moving, I can’t get a good look; / when they finally sit perched, it’s not like in the book.”), because I’ve lost my focus in the middle of a bird book, wondering if there was a misprint on the number of–what seemed to be–the same image of a black and yellow bird with a million different names; and 2) “Hummingbird Trap,” which is a beautifully written poem about your experience holding such a delicate bird: Through porous bones I felt its heart, its tiny, racing, living part. // With lightest touch, I held the life that on each front found danger rife. I’ve seen hummingbirds up close but never close enough to touch; I can only imagine this–amazing! I would love to hear more about this moment.
PK: One day, the landlady where I stayed while I was the naturalist at Wyalusing State Park ran up to me and said, “Paul, Paul, a hummingbird is trapped and can’t get out!” Seeing the panic in her face, I ran after the excited woman to where the bird was trapped.
I thought it would be easy to coax the bird to perch on a pole and set it free, but after several failed attempts, I realized I’d have to take matters – and the bird – into my own hands. Knowing the hummer would have to eat soon, I quickly climbed up to it with a bag.
I paused just long enough to make a plan. I’d have to grasp it around its body gently enough that it wouldn’t be crushed but firmly enough that it wouldn’t struggle. Then I’d have to place it in the bag and close it enough that the bird wouldn’t escape. Only then could I attempt the climb back down with a bag in one hand that I couldn’t hold too tight near the hummer, but also couldn’t ease up on.
I was so afraid I’d crush the female rubythroat but grabbed her, anyway. Her heart was beating even faster than mine. I had to look at her again because I couldn’t believe I actually had a live hummingbird in my hand. I had never felt anything like it.
I felt… life.
The next thing I knew, I was on the ground, letting her go.
CC: What’s unique about your chapbook is how each poem is paired with a page for reader’s notes and often a few footnotes on terms or concepts found within the poem (like kettle and drift and esker from “Ice-Age Impact”). I love a book that engages a reader in more ways than one: in the words on the page but in the invitation to explore on their own. What’s the best way someone might use your book in a workshop or class on creativity or poetry for young readers?
PK: Earlier this month I used Perspectives of Nature for examples in a workshop on writing about nature I taught to a group of teens and adults. It could be used in the same way to teach workshops on poetry in general or on specific topics in science for many levels of study.
In a classroom setting, the book’s glossary entries could be used to familiarize students with science topics before in-depth study or as review after in-depth study. The book’s sections for notes are ideal for portfolio evaluation and environmental education objectives. For continuing and self-taught students, writing notes in these sections could form a journal that would be its own reward and act as a reference for years to come.
Perspectives of Nature engages and educates readers about scientific content and concepts in ways and that other sources cannot and it educates them by appealing to different intelligences. Using the book can be adapted to any students – old, young, or young-at-heart.
CC: Who are your go-to poets?
PK: Certainly, Robert Frost is a go-to poet for me; I even quoted him in one of my poems. And Emily Dickinson. Those are the two poets whose poems I like the best and with whose work I am most familiar and whose poetry is most like mine. But I’ve read so little poetry, even of theirs that I can’t honestly say that I’ve been influenced by either of them…or any other poet, for that matter.
My scientifically romantic style of poetry is truly singular, I’ve found no poetry to act as a pattern for it nor any poet to act as a model for me. I am the standard-bearer of this new genre.
CC: Where is your favorite place to explore science in nature?
PK: Wyalusing State Park is definitely my favorite place to explore science in nature. It has such unusual geology and plant life and bird life that it is a phenomenal place to do so, either formally or informally. The park was the venue or genesis for many of my poems, especially the canoe trail.
I have found science in nature and subsequently written poems about it in many other places I hold in favor: on our land near Hillsboro, the bluffs of La Crosse, the shores of Lake Mendota, and caves in Kentucky, even looking out from our back yard and driving down the street. Nature is all around us, so I guess any place outside a lab that I am struck by science is, in that moment, my favorite place to explore science in nature.
About the Author
The scientifically romantic nature poetry of Paul Košir has its academic roots in his nine years as a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. There he earned bachelor’s degrees in math, natural science, and history. In 2010 he received a master’s degree in natural resources and environmental education from UW-Stevens Point. The experiential poetry was drawn from his twelve years as the naturalist at Wyalusing State Park near Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. He also drew on this background to write articles for Wisconsin Natural Resources and La Crosse Magazine and to publish the book Wyalusing History.
Košir has taught biology, physical science, and math at the high school level and earth science, biology, and environmental issues at the college level. As a naturalist, he taught all ages about nature through hikes, programs, and displays, something he still does occasionally as a volunteer.
Born in Milwaukee, he now lives in La Crosse with his wife and their two sons. He enjoys writing, hiking, bird-watching, gardening, traveling, and working on the family’s 13 acres in the Driftless Area near Hillsboro, Wisconsin.
The day job, kids’ activities, that book I long to read, an evening to binge on my favorite TV show, some days just a fear of failure. Reasons vary but the effect is always the same: it can be difficult to set aside time to write–just write, whether the goal is to revise an old piece or simply to engage with the page and create something entirely new.