See the full presentation here: 

http://armedwithvisions.com/2013/09/03/seamus-heaney-saint-kevin-blackbird/

Seamus Heaney - Saint Kevin & Blackbird

See the full presentation here: http://armedwithvisions.com/2013/10/06/joseph-bruchac-birdfoots-grampa

Grafta - Joseph Bruchac - Birdfoot's Grampa

Gary Snyder - Prayer For The Great Family

See the full presentation here: http://armedwithvisions.com/2011/07/18/gary-snyder-prayer-for-the-great-family

Gary Snyder - Gratitude

See the full presentation here: http://armedwithvisions.com/2014/05/15/billy-collins-butterfly-effect

Billy Collins - Butterfly Effect

See the full presentation here: http://armedwithvisions.com/2014/07/27/dh-lawrence-snake

D.H. Lawrence - Snake

See the full presentation here:  http://armedwithvisions.com/2014/09/06/gary-lawless-caribouddhism/

Gary Lawless - Caribouddhism

See the full presentation here: http://armedwithvisions.com/2014/10/12/mary-oliver-wild-geese-2/

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Mary Oliver - Wild Geese

See the full presentation here: http://armedwithvisions.com/2011/09/05/nanao-sakaki-break-the-mirror/ ‎

Nanao Sakaki - Break The Mirror

See the full presentation here: (Check back, link to be posted soon)

Mary Oliver - Kingfisher

Wendell Berry - Sycamore

Tom Hirons - Sometimes A Wild God

See the full presentation here:  http://armedwithvisions.com/2015/05/10/mary-delavalette-entering-nature/

Mary De La Valette - Entering Nature

See the full presentation here:  http://armedwithvisions.com/2016/01/01/janet-lowe-a-conversation-with-edward-abbey

Janet Lowe - A Conversation With Ed Abbey

See the full presentation here:  http://armedwithvisions.com/2011/09/07/mary-oliver-the-summer-day

Mary Oliver - The Summer Day

See the full presentation here:  http://armedwithvisions.com/2016/03/04/night-aside-duckabush-river

Alex – A Night Aside the Duckabush River

See the full presentation here:  http://armedwithvisions.com/2016/03/14/emily-dickinson-nature-see

Emily Dickinson - Nature is What We See

See the full presentation here:  http://armedwithvisions.com/2016/03/20/jenny-mcbride-coneflowers

Jenny McBride - For the Coneflowers

See the full presentation here:   http://armedwithvisions.com/2016/03/29/bob-finkbine-bury-heart

Bob Finkbine - Bury My Heart

See the full presentation here: http://armedwithvisions.com/2016/04/04/jack-collum-ecology

Jack Collom - Ecology

See the full presentation here:  http://armedwithvisions.com/2016/06/18/letitia-elizabeth-landon-oak

2016

Letitia Elizabeth Landon - The Oak

See the full presentation here:   http://armedwithvisions.com/2016/08/23/gyorgyi-voros

Gyorgyi Voros - Forest Orison

See full presentation at: http://armedwithvisions.com/2011/11/30/john-moffitt-to-look-at-anything

To look at any thing,
If you would know that thing,
You must look at it long:
To look at this green and say,
“I have seen spring in these
Woods,” will not do – you must
Be the thing you see:
You must be the dark snakes of
Stems and ferny plumes of leaves,
You must enter in
To the small silences between
The leaves,
You must take your time
And touch the very peace
They issue from.

~ John Moffitt ~

DeaneTR & Mike Mercker - John Moffitt - To Look at Anything

i'm glad there are places
wild and free,
that i never go to,
that i never see;
just knowing they exist
is enough for me,
wild places.

just knowing they're free
of man's devastation
in some part of the world
or part of the nation
fills me with joy
and brings me elation,
wild places.

"wild things need wild places"
sang my friend walkin' jim,
and once more i find
i'm agreeing with him;
i'll fight to preserve them
though the chances are slim,
wild places.

Dennis Fritzinger - Wild Places

See the full presentation here: http://armedwithvisions.com/2012/02/13/stephen-meadows-tenmile/

In a logged over meadow
looking down into the mouth
of the valley at dusk
it is quiet here
but for the sound
of the oncoming wind
in the stunt growth fir
the long crease
that Suicide Creek makes
toward the dim lights
on the Umpqua river
falls away into shadow
there is still red sky
to the west
where the sun parts again
the logger’s slash
far toward Coos Bay
they have left nothing here
but the names
and the brain like silence

Stephen Meadows
May 1 1988 Earth First!

DeaneTR & Mike Mercker - Stephen Meadows - Umpqua

See the full presentation here: http://armedwithvisions.com/2012/02/15/phillip-r-knight-medical-waste/

Amongst the tidepools,
barnacles and bracken
lies a sack of human blood.
Atop a dune of gleaming sand
syringes drip filth.
Human intestines and even limbs
are carried high by the tide,
a ghastly modern flotsam.
Beachcomber beware!
The womb of life
spits back death.

Phillip R. Knight
December 21 1988 Earth First!

DeaneTR & Mike Mercker - Phillip R Knight - Medical Waste

See the full presentation here:  http://armedwithvisions.com/2012/02/28/laura-woodswalker-cry-from-the-belly-of-the-beast

They say that it’s “deadening”
living in the belly of the Beast
But I’m not dead yet. My life is a battle
an every day battle for my soul.
A fight to keep from being mangled by the time clock
a struggle to keep from being run over
by rush hour traffic
a struggle to hear the Mother beneath the concrete.
How I envy the noble tree-sitting warriors
who know that they are heroes carrying on the fight
wrapped in the strength of the forest and the Mother’s closeness.
But pity us pathetic denizens of the Monster.
The sheep compelled to march on the treadmill
and breathe the auto stench
along with the knowledge that We Are Part Of The Problem.
How much harder here, to cling to the scraps of defiance
to draw up the quiet strength
while imprisoned in enemy lands.
All we have for solace is the ragged remnants:
State Parks for Sunday picnics
the empty lot… the last field of weeds…
the forgotten trail… the abandoned railroad woods…
the deer and raccoons that hide in the thickets
the willow fringe along the garbage-choked stream–
the stream that still remembers
the living channel beneath the concrete.
And make no mistake! I love these remnants of the Wild,
the broken brave holdouts,
every bit as much as you love the noble oldgrowth
that’s never seen the blade.
And if I could muster an army of warriors
on behalf of these desperate guerrilla creatures
and these weeds, still lush with exuberant hope,
struggling to reclaim the waste,
I would fight just as hard for them.
Because I love my Mother Earth
not only in her majesty and bounty,
but also when She lies broken in chains,
struggling and gasping for life.

Laura Woodswalker
September-October 2000 Earth First!

DeaneTR & MIke Mercker - Laura Woodswalker - Cry From The Belly Of The Beast

Special thanks to: http://soundcloud.com/zebrabook & http://soundcloud.com/nature-sounds & http://soundcloud.com/s2a for making this recording possible...

See the full presentation here: http://armedwithvisions.com/2012/03/14/dana-gioia-becoming-a-redwood

Becoming A Redwood

Stand in a field long enough, and the sounds
start up again.  The crickets, the invisible
toad who claims that change is possible,

And all the other life too small to name.
First one, then another, until innumerable
they merge into the single voice of a summer hill.

Yes, it's hard to stand still, hour after hour,
fixed as a fencepost, hearing the steers
snort in the dark pasture, smelling the manure.

And paralyzed by the mystery of how a stone
can bear to be a stone, the pain
the grass endures breaking through the earth's crust.

Unimaginable the redwoods on the far hill,
rooted for centuries, the living wood grown tall
and thickened with a hundred thousand days of light.

The old windmill creaks in perfect time
to the wind shaking the miles of pasture grass,
and the last farmhouse light goes off.

Something moves nearby.  Coyotes hunt
these hills and packs of feral dogs.
But standing here at night accepts all that.

You are your own pale shadow in the quarter moon,
moving more slowly than the crippled stars,
part of the moonlight as the moonlight falls,

Part of the grass that answers the wind,
part of the midnight's watchfulness that knows
there is no silence but when danger comes.

DeaneTR & Nature Sounds & Zefora-Zebra - Dana Gioia - Becoming A Redwood

See the full presentation here: http://armedwithvisions.com/2012/03/19/lisa-wujnovich-albany-fracking-protest/

From the Catskills, we hear the planet explode in ashen
wails, voodoo helpless against Haiti's steaming wounds.

Here we fight the planned explosions: chemo shots
for the earth's womb.  Friends and faces: idealists, few,

stubborn, ponchoed, grizzled, wet, weighted with backpacks.
How to entice more youth to fight the gas drill and bit?

Wes, our leader, tall hemlock of a man, bearded, suited,
torn from farming by flood, misses his homestead.

Outstretched, aloft, his son calls over the gray-headed:
I speak for all the kids of the world.  We want clean water!

His small fist punches the air, raises our tired voices,
pulls plugs from our ears, lifts our hands, clears our view.

Lisa Wujnovich

DeaneTR & Mike Mercker - Lisa Wujnovich - Albany Fracking Protest

See full presentation here: http://armedwithvisions.com/2012/03/28/steve-toth-natures-course

A kangaroo rat is
so efficient it can go
a whole lifetime without
taking a single drink of water
An alligator only needs
an inch & a half above
the surface of the water
to see hear & smell you
An owl can glide in silence
& with pinpoint hearing
locate a mouse tunneling
in the dark under the snow
So how is it that the only animals
who call themselves intelligent
produce fumes so strong
we’re smelling up the atmosphere?
We humans talk about allowing
nature to take its course as if
nature ever needed to ask
for permission to do anything
but when we took on consciousness
we also took on responsibility
The impulse that began creation
is still working creatively in us

Steve Toth

DeaneTR & Mike Mercker - SteveToth - Nature's Course

See the full presentation here: http://armedwithvisions.com/2012/04/18/carlos-purple-bear-california-grizzly-republic/

Immortal great bear
Shadow bear, ghost bear, memory bear
Flag flapping emblem
High on mast
From state capitol
To truck stop station
The bear no more
Is flying forever
Memory bear
Roaming your kingdom
Memory bear ain't driving
Big trucks
Memory bear ain't the
Politician
Memory bear don't
Swear allegiance
Roaming man-beast
Atop crystal peaks
Sierra-song
California-song
Memory dream
Lives in my heart
Walks on four paws
Paws with claws

Carlos Purple Bear
November 1988 Earth First!

DeaneTR & Steven Graves - Carlos Purple Bear - California Grizzly Republic

See the full presentation here:  http://armedwithvisions.com/2012/05/19/jean-varda-treesit/

Swaying in the breeze,
your boat, your child’s rocket ship
made from climbing rope and tarps
woven from one ancient conifer to
the other
with banner hanging in between
every light breeze
every sprinkling of needles
moves you sensitively
on pine scented air
You said you can see beauty from up there
in between the checkerboard pattern
they’ve made of earth
In the morning the sound of chainsaws
will awaken you
from star studded sleep
the trees you wove onto
marked for cutting
with broad blue paint
our support holds you up
in the thin webbing of climbing ropes
delicate and strong
that ragged steel could cut in seconds
At dawn you see a bear cub
hunting for her breakfast
what shall be her home when all
trees have been felled
and earth is only a mess of dry
brush and dirt
soon to be sprayed with toxic chemicals
“Isn’t $80 billion enough?” you ask,
“NO,” say the broad metallic jaws of greed
that gobble the last strands of wilderness
NO, says consumerism
NO, says this way of life that ends life
as your boat of peace
hangs patiently on the trees


Jean Varda
May-June 2002 Earth First!

DeaneTR & MIke Mercker - Jean Varda - Treesit

See the full presentation here: http://armedwithvisions.com/2012/06/18/lone-wolf-circles-the-job-of-poetry

Let me take you for a moment
from that frantic video you call "reality,"
a contemporary hit co-authored by fear.
Noise and commotion pulled up around you
like the false security
of an electric blanket;
encircling you like covered wagons
against the intense
uncertain potential of nightfall,
of our wild, unchained dreams.

Let me take you for a moment
to the shadow-lined corridors
between Tamarack and Aspen,
down those thorny, berry covered tunnels
that lead to your naked wild soul.
Silence will stalk you there,
coming closer even as you stop to listen.
Another step or two,
and it will reach out and touch you.

There is no winning without such struggle.
There is no freedom without such danger.
Shaggy hair hangs over your eyes here,
as even your tracks are transformed--
larger now, deeper,
with a hint of claws.
It is the job of my poetry
to take you there.

Lone Wolf Circles

DeaneTR & Daniel Landin - Lone Wolf Circles - The Job Of Poetry

See the full presentation here:  http://armedwithvisions.com/2012/10/08/joy-harjo-remember/

Remember the sky that you were born under,
know each of the star’s stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is. I met her
in a bar once in Iowa City.
Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, that is the
strongest point of time. Remember sundown
and the giving away to night.
Remember your birth, how your mother struggled
to give you form and breath. You are evidence of
her life, and her mother’s, and hers.
Remember your father. He is your life also.
Remember the earth whose skin you are:
red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth
brown earth, we are earth.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,
listen to them. They are alive poems.
Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the
origin of this universe. I heard her singing Kiowa war
dance songs at the corner of Fourth and Central once.
Remember that you are all people and that all people are you.
Remember that you are this universe and that this universe is you.
Remember that all is in motion, is growing, is you.
Remember that language comes from this.
Remember the dance that language is, that life is.
Remember.

DeaneTR & Sinew & Blind Physics2 - Joy Harjo - Remember

See words, videos, photos, full poem presentation here: http://armedwithvisions.com/2012/11/28/lone-wolf-circles-you-might-be-an-alien

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