This Bright Space

Microseason No. 21

I began my walk this morning, as always, with a simple request:

Show me something beautiful.

Damselfly, Johnston Mill Nature Preserve, May 18, 2025 by Ann Collins

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Here’s a poem I wrote to go along with the mood of today’s hike.

This Bright Space

This poem is part of a larger project that I’ve been working on in celebration of the 72 microseasons of the natural year.

Also, here are just a few lines from an epistolary novella I’ve been writing on my walks this year. It’s still rough and sketchy right now, but very much fun.

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I press my bare feet against soil, feeling life stirring beneath in patterns that mimic the river, Mnemosyne, below. All connections remain, though transformed.

I am not fully here yet, nor fully gone from there.

-Ann Collins, Monoflora

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That’s all, my friends. Just wanted to give you a taste of what I’ve been working on. It’s a multilayered project that I hope will carry me through the long, hot North Carolina summer.

I’d love to hear what you’ve been cooking up—feel free to comment!

I’ll see you in a new microseason,

xo Ann